Message from the Program Director
I am delighted to share a few words of welcome with all of you. It is hard to believe how far we have all come. Two years ago, in April 2022, I received permission from the ACGME to begin recruiting residents for our new neurology program at OBH. It was all just a dream at that time; we hadn’t even recruited many of our current faculty, such as Dr. Lerner, Dr. Khaneja, and Dr. Mizrahi. And now, just two years later, we’ve already recruited our third cohort of residents and are interviewing the fourth group, our rising seniors have been applying for fellowships, and more additions to the faculty are anticipated in the upcoming months. Rotations have been developed in neurocritical care, headache, OPD, behavioral neurology, and clinical neurophysiology, and pediatric neurology has been expanded to include Maimonides. Our first chief resident has been appointed, and the educational program has been tightened up, making it less dependent on Downstate Zoom sessions (although those sessions still exist and enhance our program tremendously, especially Grand Rounds). The success of the program is a tribute to each and every one of you – every attending, every resident, every staff member, and especially Dorina. You all play a critical role in the overall warmth that exudes from our growing family, and I feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to lead and build this program into the nationally recognized entity it is destined to become. Thank you all for your contributions to making this program a success, and for the camaraderie that you show to one another. I look forward to coming to work each day; I hope you do as well.
Dr. Lisa R. Merlin
I am delighted to share a few words of welcome with all of you. In April 2022, the ACGME conferred on our residency application the status of “initial accreditation with commendation,” thereby permitting us to begin recruiting residents for our new neurology program at OBH. Less than three months later, we welcomed our first PGY2 residents. The neurology faculty at OBH at that time were general neurologists, clinical neurophysiologists, pediatric neurologists, and stroke neurologists. We have since expanded our services by recruiting specialists in neurocritical care, interventional neurology, neurosurgery, headache, behavioral neurology and epilepsy, with other areas of expertise soon to come.
Our program is sponsored by SUNY Downstate. Our residents therefore have access to all Downstate facilities; they have Downstate email addresses and get Downstate diplomas. While most of the program’s rotations are at OBH-Brookdale, we have arranged senior resident rotations in pediatric neurology and neuroradiology at the Maimonides Children’s Hospital (affiliated with Downstate’s neurology department). Our residents also attend Downstate’s weekly Grand Rounds (on Zoom).
We were granted our status of full accreditation in April 2025, and we celebrated the graduation of our first resident cohort in June 2025, with all graduates heading off to their first-choice careers in neurocritical care (Mayo Clinic-Jacksonville), stroke (Zucker Northwell), headache medicine (Yale-New Haven) and comprehensive neurology (Ascension Health, Kokomo). I am also pleased to announce that we were approved to increase our resident complement to six residents per year, beginning with the July 2026 incoming PGY2’s.
The success of the program is a tribute to every attending, every resident, every staff member, and especially Dorina Spinel, our program coordinator. Every member of the team plays a critical role in the overall warmth that exudes from our growing family, and I feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to lead and build this program into the nationally recognized entity it is destined to become. Thank you all for your contributions to making this program a success, and for the camaraderie that you show to one another. I look forward to coming to work each day; I hope you do as well.
Lisa R. Merlin, MD
Program Director and Founder, Downstate Neurology at One Brooklyn Health
Distinguished Teaching Professor and Vice Chair for Education, Departments of Neurology and Physiology and Pharmacology, Downstate Health Sciences University