Cleveland Clinic Foundation Program

Program Identity & Fit

Cleveland Clinic's Neurosurgery residency is a high-volume, subspecialized academic program built around a 21-surgeon department covering every neurosurgical subspecialty, including a unified cerebrovascular/endovascular service and one of the largest epilepsy surgery practices in the world (250+ cases/year). The seven-year structure devotes two full protected PGY-5–6 years to research, explicitly framed as preparation for academic neurosurgery, with residents expected to produce basic science or clinical research and present nationally; enfolded fellowship options exist within this research block. As a tertiary/quaternary referral center integrated with the Lerner Research Institute and Neurological Institute's large clinical trials infrastructure, the program is oriented toward producing academic subspecialists rather than general community neurosurgeons. The program values applicants who already demonstrate a neurosurgery research track record, given its explicit application requirement of prior research in the field.