RESIDENCY, MEDICAL STUDENTS, & FELLOWSHIPS
Residency Training Program
The UAB Neurosurgery Residency Training Program,
currently led by Curtis Rozzelle, MD, and formerly
led by Mark Hadley, MD, expanded from one trainee
per year in 1991, to two trainees per year in 2007,
and to three trainees per year starting in 2009
through the present day. The UAB Neurosurgery
Residency Training Program became a top 20
program nationally in 2010, with respect to clinical
care and productivity, academic performance and
publications, residency training, research support
and national society and meeting participation.
The residency program now attracts and recruits
the very best candidates for neurosurgical training
from medical schools throughout the United
States and worldwide. Program graduates are
competitively positioned for the most prestigious
post-residency fellowship programs and the most
competitive neurosurgical positions within academic
neurosurgery nationwide and in private practice.
Residents find Birmingham to be a great place to work, live and play. Our city earned its “Magic City” moniker as
a booming steel city in the late 19th century, but lately the magic comes from the city’s transformation as a dining
mecca and urban renewal hotspot – and UAB is right in the middle of it. The UAB School of Medicine, perhaps
more than most medical schools, is integral to our city. UAB’s enterprise is vital to the economic health and vitality
of the city, the state and the region. Birmingham is also vital to UAB, and word is starting to spread about the great
things the region offers. To learn more, visit uab.edu/students/home/birmingham.
Neurosurgery Medical Students
The UAB Department of Neurosurgery actively supports numerous opportunities that expose medical students
to neurosurgery, and they take advantage of options to participate in the neurosurgical services and perform
neurosurgery research. Students are introduced to the neurosurgical service beginning in the first and second
years, with opportunities supported by the UAB School of Medicine AANS Medical Student Chapter. Activities
include lunch-and-learn sessions, Dinner with Docs gatherings, and hands-on workshops. Additionally, a number
of neurosurgery faculty lecture to second-year medical students on topics such as traumatic brain injury, epilepsy
surgery, pituitary tumors, and brain tumors.
During the third year of medical school, students have the opportunity to participate in a week-long Scholars’
Week program, which introduces them to the clinical neurosurgical service, primarily with exposure to the
operating rooms. Students may rotate for four weeks on the neurosurgical service as third- or fourth-year
students, as an elective rotation, or as acting interns. In addition to clinical activities, UAB medical students are
highly active in the Department of Neurosurgery Outcomes-Based Research program. UAB residents publish
numerous articles each year, and medical students are involved in many of them.
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UAB Neurosurgery Annual Report 2020