Towards accredited clinical training in brain stimulation: Proceedings from the brain stimulation subspecialty summits

The rapid development and clinical use of brain stimulation has renewed debates about whether to define and accredit a pathway for clinical subspecialty training. To address this, the Brain Stimulation Subspecialty Summits (BraSSS) were convened in 2023 and 2024, featuring international leaders in brain stimulation across psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, psychology, and neuroscience. Both meetings included two days of lectures and debates focused on clinical content, emerging science, and educational standards. The 2023 meeting was held at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard University, where 54 attendees reached a consensus that the subspecialty is adequately developed to warrant formal recognition and initiated debates regarding the name and scope of the subspecialty. The 2024 meeting was held at Stanford University, where 56 attendees developed a content outline, organized committees, and reached a consensus to form an independent society focused on developing and maintaining unbiased accreditation standards. "Brain stimulation" was chosen democratically as the name of the subspecialty. Clinicians from multiple primary specialties may enter this subspecialty training track. While individual programs may have a specific area of focus (e.g. interventional psychiatry or epilepsy), our expectation is that accredited brain stimulation programs will provide training experiences that cross specialties and stimulation modalities. Several potential unintended consequences were discussed, and plans were developed to address them. Overall, subspecialty recognition was deemed to be beneficial to the brain stimulation field, with a goal to launch an associated society and start the process of accrediting existing US and Canadian programs in 2025.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Brain stimulation
Published
2025-02-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2025.02.012
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Neurological disorders and treatments
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
4.17
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Towards accredited clinical training in brain stimulation: Proceedings from the brain stimulation subspecialty summits

Noreen Bukhari‐Parlakturk, Ziad Nahas, Tracy Barbour, Brian Harris Kopell et al.
3 citations
Brain stimulation
Neurological disorders and treatments
4.17
article

Towards accredited clinical training in brain stimulation: Proceedings from the brain stimulation subspecialty summits

Noreen Bukhari‐Parlakturk, Ziad Nahas, Tracy Barbour, Brian Harris Kopell, Katherine W. Scangos, Leo Chen, Mouhsin M. Shafi, Helen S. Mayberg, Gonzalo J. Revuelta, Shan H. Siddiqi, Robert S. Fisher, Alfonso A. Fasano, Andrew H. Smith, Joshua C. Brown, Joan A. Camprodon, John D. Rolston, Patricio Riva‐Posse, Nolan Williams, Carlene MacMillan, Aaron D. Boes, Joshua K. Wong, Nicholas T. Trapp, Casey H. Halpern, Joseph J. Taylor, Michael Fox
article en
3 citations

Abstract

The rapid development and clinical use of brain stimulation has renewed debates about whether to define and accredit a pathway for clinical subspecialty training. To address this, the Brain Stimulation Subspecialty Summits (BraSSS) were convened in 2023 and 2024, featuring international leaders in brain stimulation across psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, psychology, and neuroscience. Both meetings included two days of lectures and debates focused on clinical content, emerging science, and educational standards. The 2023 meeting was held at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard University, where 54 attendees reached a consensus that the subspecialty is adequately developed to warrant formal recognition and initiated debates regarding the name and scope of the subspecialty. The 2024 meeting was held at Stanford University, where 56 attendees developed a content outline, organized committees, and reached a consensus to form an independent society focused on developing and maintaining unbiased accreditation standards. "Brain stimulation" was chosen democratically as the name of the subspecialty. Clinicians from multiple primary specialties may enter this subspecialty training track. While individual programs may have a specific area of focus (e.g. interventional psychiatry or epilepsy), our expectation is that accredited brain stimulation programs will provide training experiences that cross specialties and stimulation modalities. Several potential unintended consequences were discussed, and plans were developed to address them. Overall, subspecialty recognition was deemed to be beneficial to the brain stimulation field, with a goal to launch an associated society and start the process of accrediting existing US and Canadian programs in 2025.

Brain stimulationVol. 18(2)
University of Iowa (US), Brigham and Women's Hospital (US), University of Minnesota (US), Mount Sinai Health System (US), Emory University (US), Duke University (US), Toronto Western Hospital (CA), McLean Hospital (US), University of Florida (US), Massachusetts General Hospital (US), Circuit Therapeutics (United States) (US), Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center (US), Berenson Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation (US), American Psychiatric Association (US), Alfred Health (AU), University of Pennsylvania (US), Stanford University (US), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Neurological disorders and treatments
4.17
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.