Introduction

Neurohospitalist is a term used for physicians interested in inpatient neurological care.

It is an emerging subspecialty of neurology and a growing branch of neurology-internal medicine cross-functional care.

Journal

The Neurohospitalist is a quarterly, international, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the practice and performance of neurohospitalist medicine.

The Neurohospitalist Society

The Neurohospitalist Society (NHS) was formed to create a central unifying organisation of neurohospitalists. Neurohospitalists are physicians and providers who care for hospitalised patients with, or at risk for, neurological disorders and disease.

History of the Neurohospitalist

In the early 2000s, “the term hospitalist was coined to describe specialists in internal medicine, whose focus was primarily on inpatient care.”

You can read about the “The Birth of Neurohospitalists” by William D. Freeman and S. Andrew Josephson here.

In the inaugural issue of The Neurohospitalist (January 2011), the authors sought to address 4 fundamental questions about neurohospitalists:

1. What is a neurohospitalist?
2. What fuelled the “birth” and growth of neurohospitalists?
3. What are the different functions of a neurohospitalist compared to other neurologists?; and
4. What areas of research will define this subspecialty (e.g. other than stroke and neurocritical care)?

What Illnesses do Neurohospitalists Treat?

Neurohospitalists see and treat a wide variety of illnesses ranging from autoimmune encephalitis to acute myasthenia gravis exacerbation, Guillain-Barre syndrome, refractory epilepsy, meningitis, headache, primary and secondary brain cancers, and delirium.

Neurology vs Neurohospitalist

In contrast to traditional neurology subspecialty practice that is outpatient-centred and disease specific, neurology hospitalists or “neurohospitalists” specialise in the care of patients admitted to the hospital with a wide array of nervous system disorders.

A neurohospitalist is (generally) a neurologist who has completed additional training to care for acutely ill, clinically complex patients with neurologic disease.