The School of Medicine’s graduate programs have expanded with a residency in neurology and a fellowship in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism.

The neurology residency started July 1 with two residents, Dr. Ellen Troudt and Dr. Nikita Maniar. Troudt, currently at Truman Medical Center, and Maniar, at Saint Luke’s Hospital, will work for a year in internal medicine and then three years in neurology. Research Medical Center, Children’s Mercy Hospital and the Center for Behavioral Medicine also are affiliates for the residency.

Dr. Charles Donohoe, the Neurology Department chairman and associate professor of neurology, said adding the residency was “integral to sustaining the TMC-UMKC neurology program.”

“Five years ago we had no full-time neurology faculty,” said Donohoe. “Now we have five faculty members in the Neurology Department, and to add a residency in such a short time is quite an achievement. We also think it’s important to have a solid neurology presence at a safety net hospital such as Truman.”

Now that the program is underway, Donohoe said, it will use the match system next year and aim to add three physicians a year, eventually having a dozen residents. Dr. Sean Gratton, who is the program director, said this was “the first new residency program at TMC or UMKC in many years.”

Troudt is from New York and earned her medical degree at the Ross University School in the Caribbean island nation of Dominica. Donohoe said she had recently worked in cutting-edge stroke treatment as part of an ambulance team that had the rare advantage of having a CT scanner in their vehicle.

Maniar is from Florida and also earned her medical degree in the Caribbean, at the St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada. She then earned an MBA there and recently was a research fellow at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York.

The new endocrinology position is a two-year fellowship held by Dr. Maha Abu Kishk, an internist who earned her medical degree in 2003 and has been a hospitalist with Truman Medical Centers. This fellowship is affiliated with Hellman & Rosen Endocrine Associates, which will be a primary training site along with Truman Medical Center.

“We’re excited to add this fellowship, which helps address the shortage of endocrinologists,” said Dr. Betty Drees, professor of medicine and program director for the fellowship. “As diabetes continues to increase in prevalence, so does the need for endocrinologists.”