Epilepsy Fellowship

The Epilepsy Fellowship program is a joint fellowship between UCI Medical Center and CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County), and offers both adult and pediatric positions.

Adult Epilepsy Curriculum

The adult position is open to trainees who have completed a neurology residency program prior to starting the fellowship. Training provides in-depth expertise in the analysis and interpretation of adult routine EEG, continuous EEG monitoring and neurocritical care EEG, in addition to exposure to the epilepsy monitoring unit. Fellows also gain hands-on exposure to intracranial EEG monitoring, electrocorticography, Wada and functional brain mapping, learning to navigate epilepsy care across multiple disciplines. The rotation at CHOC includes training in pediatric EEG. Fellows are exposed to a diversity of epilepsy patients, including both inpatients and those receiving treatment for complex epilepsy in an ambulatory setting. Additional elective time can be applied to research or used to gain experience in other neurophysiological procedures, such as intraoperative neuromonitoring.

Pediatric Epilepsy Curriculum

The pediatric position is open to trainees who have completed a child neurology residency program prior to starting the fellowship. The structure is analogous to the adult position: Eight months are spent at CHOC for primary emphasis on pediatric epilepsy and EEG, two months are spent at UCI Medical Center on the adult epilepsy/EEG side, with clinical research opportunities available. 

Both UCI Medical Center and CHOC have active epilepsy surgery programs, with capabilities to perform stereo-EEG monitoring using ROSA and a full range of surgical interventions, including vagus nerve stimulation, laser interstitial thermal therapy, responsive stimulation and deep brain stimulation. 

Fellows are trained in the technological aspects and interpretation of adult and pediatric EEG, and outpatient and inpatient management of epilepsy, including intracranial surgical monitoring and brain mapping, training in neuromodulation, and functional and structural neuroimaging. Fellows also gain expertise in the management of critical care epilepsy patients. At the conclusion of the training, fellows are eligible for the ABPN epilepsy board.

The fellowship accepts applications through ERAS and NRMP.  Applicants must have completed an adult or child neurology residency and be American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology board-eligible, with a California medical license before the July 1 program start date.

Maija-Riikka Steenari, MD, is board-certified in child neurology, clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy. She attended medical school at the University of Helsinki Medical Faculty in Helsinki, Finland, and completed her pediatric residency at White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif., in 2010 and child neurology training at CHOC and UC Irvine in 2013, with subsequent subspecialty fellowship in pediatric epilepsy at CHOC and UC Irvine in 2014. As a pediatric neurologist and epilepsy specialist, Steenari’s clinical interests include neurometabolic disorders and genetic epilepsies, epileptic encephalopathies including infantile spasms and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, as well as intracranial monitoring and epilepsy surgery. Her research interests include understanding epileptic disorders, such as infantile spasms and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, and investigating different treatment modalities in patients with refractory epilepsy, including precision therapies and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures.