The Neuroexam Video

The NeuroExam Video demonstrates how to perform a complete neurologic examination. It is intended for medical students, residents, and other students in the health care professions. We recommend that this video be used in the classroom setting, where it can be shown in its entirety or using selected excerpts. Students can then review the exam by visiting neuroexam.com, and can learn about the neuroanatomical interpretation of the exam by reading the textbook Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases.

The NeuroExam Video introduces the neurologic exam, and then presents a detailed demonstration of the exam consisting of the following six subdivisions:

* Mental status

* Cranial nerves

* Motor exam

* Reflexes

* Coordination and gait

* Sensory exam

In the era of modern neuroimaging methods, the neurologic exam remains an essential diagnostic tool. It is a critical way station in the clinical decision making process, dictating whether imaging studies or other tests are required. In addition, the neurologic exam enables the clinician to decide what regions should be imaged, and when emergency therapeutic interventions are needed prior to any diagnostic tests. By understanding how to perform and interpret the neurologic exam, health care professionals in all specialties can help preserve the functioning of the nervous system, vastly improving patient quality of life.

Hal Blumenfeld is Professor in the Departments of Neurology, Neurobiology, and Neurosurgery at Yale University School of Medicine. He has taught neuroanatomy at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia Universities using the approach of Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases, which the students greeted with highly favorable feedback. He recently received the prestigious Francis Gilman Blake Award, as the most outstanding teacher of medical sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, and the Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Research Award from the American Academy of Neurology. He has also been awarded several major grants (from the National Institutes of Health, and private foundations) to pursue his research, which focuses on epilepsy as a model system for investigating consciousness. Current projects include neuroimaging, neurophysiology, and behavioral experiments in animal models of epilepsy, and direct application to human patients. His clinical training included an internship in Internal Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, a residency in Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a fellowship in Epilepsy at Yale University School of Medicine. He studied Bioelectrical Engineering at Harvard University, then earned a Ph.D. (in Physiology and Cellular Biophysics) as well as his M.D. at Columbia University. Dr. Blumenfeld's previous publications include numerous articles in peer reviewed journals, as well as two volumes in the Let's Go travel guidebook series.