Clinical problem solvers, it's my great pleasure to introduce a dear friend and colleague,

Dr. Aaron Berkowitz. He completed his medical school at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,

later went to the Harvard system, and completed his neurology residency in a chief year in

neurology. Aaron has really taught us a tremendous amount of neurology. This has been primarily

through our virtual morning report series, where we've dedicated one day a week to the goal of

educating our community, all things neurology. And we are just incredibly grateful for Aaron

joining our movement and really being a key part of our future direction. In this episode, it is part of the

Virtual Morning Report, like I said, once a week, and we will start releasing such episodes

intermittently. Now, let's hear from Aaron. Hello, clinical problem solvers. My name is Aaron Berkowitz. I'm a neurologist in Los Angeles,

where I just moved this last year after many years in Boston. I am so, so, so excited to join

the clinical problem solvers team to work on this series to end neurophobia. Now, I'm not making up

that term neurophobia. This word was coined by one of the

great neurology educators, Dr. Ralph Josephowitz, in a 1994 article in the archives of neurology. He defined

neurophobia as, quote, a fear of the neurosciences and clinical neurology due to the student's

inability to apply the

knowledge of basic science to clinical situations, end quote. He describes the symptoms of

neurophobia as intimidation, boredom, confusion, cynicism, nihilism. Now, it sounds like he's

blaming the students for their neurophobia, but he's really not.

He explains the reason for neuropobia, the problem that results in neurophobia is the

teaching of neurology and neuroscience, that the teaching tends to lack integration between

clinical and basic sciences. And my friends, that is what we're going to do in this series.

Because you see, neurology is actually an amazing field where we can use our understanding of neuroanatomy to inform the interpretation of the

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