About the Department of Neurology

Ranked among the top neurology departments in the country by the National Institutes of Health, the UC Irvine Health School of Medicine's Department of Neurology is committed to advancing clinical care, education and research to help patients with diverse neurological conditions. The department’s 40 full-time teaching faculty members are highly-experienced clinicians who are devoted to training the next generation of neurologists.

Some of the department's accomplishments include:

• UC Irvine Medical Center is the first in Orange County to be designated as an advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission. It previously was the first hospital in Orange County to be certified as a Primary Stroke Center by the commission, and among the first in the nation to receive this recognition.

• Orange County's Health Care Agency has designated UC Irvine Medical Center a stroke-neurology receiving center as part of Southern California's first program to direct patients to hospitals best equipped to provide state-of-the-art stroke care.

• The UC Irvine Health MDA-ALS Neuromuscular Center, one of 44 Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA)-designated ALS clinics in the United States, has been nationally recognized for its ground-breaking research and role in developing novel therapies to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

• With world-class specialists in neurology, neurosurgery and critical care, UC Irvine has established multidisciplinary programs in stroke, epilepsy, movement disorders and neuro-oncology.

The Department of Neurology’s clinical activities take place at UC Irvine Medical Center, the university campus in Irvine and at the VA Long Beach Healthcare System. The state-of-the-art UC Irvine Douglas Hospital at UC Irvine Medical Center has beds for patients with neurological disorders as well as specialized units for epilepsy monitoring and neuro-intensive care.

The department also participates in leading-edge research including: devising methods to predict and improve functional recovery after stroke; mapping white matter tracts in epilepsy, seeking ways to promote healthy brain aging and novel treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; understanding the pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis; delineating novel molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and developing stem cell therapies for neurological disorders.