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Program Overview

Department of Neurology

Jackson Memorial Hospital, the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the UHealth Tower, all located at the University of Miami Medical Campus, provide over 2500 hospital beds, making UM/Jackson the largest hospital facility in the southern United States. Jackson is the main referral hospital for communities in South Florida and in Central and South America and is one of the nation’s busiest hospitals.

Jackson Memorial Hospital's (JMH) strength is a broad range of tertiary services and clinical programs designed to serve the entire community, and a medical staff that is recognized nationally for the quality of its patient care, teaching, and research. The depth and breadth of cases and the diverse pathologies make Jackson an ideal place to train in Neurology, offering residents the opportunities to see both bread and butter neurology plus all the “zebras.” The addition of the UHealth Tower (UHT located directly across the street from JMH), allows our trainees to see a variety of cases in a private, community-based setting. UHT is affiliated with the NCI designated Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center providing neuro-oncology exposure. The VA provides a third unique patient population and encompasses a combined inpatient and outpatient experience for residents. The combination of JMH, the Miami VA and UHT provides a unique and comprehensive training environment that is second to none.

More than 100 faculty members comprise the UM Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology and serve as faculty physicians in our Neurology residency training program, providing cutting-edge knowledge and experience in clinical neurology and neuroscience research. Every subspecialty area of neurology is represented in our staff and active recruitment is always underway to broaden the program. In fact, the Department has hired many new faculty in a variety of subspecialties in recent times. Ralph L. Sacco, M.D., M.S., Professor and Chairman of Neurology and Olemberg Family Chair of Neurological Disorders, past President of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and of the American Heart Association (AHA), and Editor-in-Chief of Stroke, is the 3rd Chairman of our department, preceded by Dr. Walter Bradley (1989 – 2006) and Dr. Peritz Scheinberg (1955- 1989). Our hospital system has a Comprehensive Stroke Center, a Level IV Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, and a nationally recognized Center of Excellence for Parkinson’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis.

Areas of particular strength in patient care, research, and teaching within the neurology service include: cerebrovascular diseases, neuromuscular disorders, movement disorders, epilepsy and EEG, multiple sclerosis and neuroimmunology, behavioral neuroscience and cognitive disorders, neuro-oncology, neurovirology, headache medicine, and sleep medicine. There are also well-funded basic research programs in cerebrovascular disease, cerebral metabolism, neurotrauma, cell biology and molecular genetics, mitochondrial biology, neurovirology, neuroimmunology, and several other research fields. The Department is among the top programs in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and our Chair, Dr. Ralph Sacco, was honored as the recipient of the NIH Javits Award, for his landmark study, NOMAS. We are also part of the NeuroNext network research collaboration. The School of Medicine’s Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education provides innovative neurological clinical teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels and is nationally recognized. We encourage all of our residents to participate in research and for those with strong interest in research we invite them to apply to the Resident Clinician Research Program.

Program Director

Jason Margolesky

Jason Margolesky, M.D.

Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology, Movement Disorders
Clinical Profile
Biography: Dr. Jason Margolesky joined the Movement Disorders Division as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology in 2017. He was born in Miami, Florida. He received his undergraduate degree (BS) in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology (with a minor in religion) at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He then attended Georgetown University in Washington, DC where he earned a...
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Associate Program Directors

Leticia Tornes

Leticia Tornes, M.D., FAAN

Associate Vice-Chair for Graduate Medical Education, Multiple Sclerosis
Clinical Profile
Biography: Dr. Leticia Tornes, is an Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology and the Residency Program Director at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. She graduated from the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine and completed her Neurology training at Jackson Memorial Hospital/University of Miami where she served as Chief Resident during her last year of...
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Program Coordinator

Terry Crugnale
Email: tcrugnale@med.miami.edu