Brain Stimulation Intensive Course

Upcoming Training Courses

The following courses are being offered twice a year by the Brain Stimulation Lab at MUSC:

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Intensive Course

Spring: April 7, 2025 to April 11, 2025
Fall: To be decided

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Intensive Course

Spring: April 14, 2025 to April 18, 2025
Fall: To be decided

Exact dates of the trainings will be updated on this website three months prior to months listed above.

Registration can be found at the bottom of this page.

Course Overview

Director: Mark S. George, M.D., MUSC Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Radiology and Neuroscience

Target Audience

This activity is designed for psychiatrists and researchers who wish to enhance their knowledge of TMS and the related brain stimulation techniques.

Course Description

This week-long training program offers a nice combination of pre-course readings and notes, in person lectures with web-based streaming, followed by observations of clinical and research uses. Most importantly, the course offers ample time for hands on technique learning and practice.

Two tracks are offered, one leading to a training certificate in Advanced ECT. The other would result in a training certificate in TMS. For those interested additional didactics can be arranged regarding VNS, DBS or tDCS. The curriculum can also be modified and adapted for those interested in either clinical or research use.

The minimum attendance is Mon-Wed for core didactics and hands-on testing. A full week attendance is recommended.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this activity, participants should be able to:

Review and apply knowledge of past and current brain stimulation research in order to provide optimal care.
Describe the full range of current methods of brain stimulation, and be able to list and describe how they differ in their approach to stimulating the brain.
Discuss the TMS (or ECT if ECT track) literature, the latest techniques, the appropriate clinical uses and guidelines, and apply this to patient care.
Apply hands-on practice in device set-up and motor threshold determination.
Identify current safety guidelines and be able to respond to a patient in crisis during TMS.
Be able to select the appropriate patients who meet criteria or are good candidates for treatment.
They will be able to complete a written test and accomplish a 70 percent passing grade/score and then discuss incorrect areas of test with Dr. George.

BSL Course Testimonials

"The entire week was incredibly informative, exciting, and thought-provoking."

"This course is very valuable to clinicians and researchers. It was beneficial to have several disciplines present for the course."

"Wonderful course. I have learned so much and have a much better understanding of the application of TMS, not only clinically, but also in regards to research."

"Satisfying, enlightening, exceeded expectations, able to translate into clinical practice."

"The psychiatry department and everyone was so gracious and I learned a lot. I feel ready to open a Brain Stimulation clinic using ECT because the training was so good."

"What was the most helpful were the opportunities to meet with people, especially researchers, who had been doing TMS, and the hands-on practicums were very helpful as well."

"We were so impressed with EVERYONE who participated in the training."

"Thank you for the wonderful hospitality extended to us and world class training from the world class experts."

"Thanks for such a wonderful experience."

"Highly beneficial."

"Great course. Very informative."

"Truly, the rTMS course exceeded my expectations. I came away from the course with a core of knowledge that I could, with an appropriate level of confidence, translate into clinical practice. I found the key elements to be:

A solid grounding in how the rTMS process works and how it was developed.
An appreciation of alternate brain stimulation therapies. I anticipated that this information would be interesting, but underestimated how essential it turned out to be in my ability to formulate good responses to colleague and patient questions.
An open-mindedness on the part of every presenter that made it both easy and worthwhile to ask questions.Adequate “hands-on” time with the rTMS equipment."

"I can’t think of any course topic that was inadequately covered, or an area that I could have done without. The presentations were well balanced in that they conveyed the “need to know” along with an appropriate amount of context."

"I really enjoyed the training and was grateful for the small size, the ability to ask lots of questions and the flexibility that Dr. George maintained in the curriculum. I wouldn’t change a thing. As for Charleston, what a lovely city."

Cost
The course is open to physicians, nurses, researchers, and other professionals and trainees, from the U.S. and abroad. This program is sponsored by MUSC. The course registration fee is $3,500 for the TMS Course and $5,000 for the ECT Course. Fee may be waived for full-time MUSC faculty and trainees, please inquire when registering. Payment is due by one month before the course start date. A written notice of cancellation must be received 30 days prior to the start of this activity. A 10 percent cancellation fee will be assessed at that time; after that date, cancellation requests cannot be honored.

Please contact Minnie Dobbins at 843-792-5730, via fax 843-792-5702, or by email at dobbinsm@musc.edu for more information.

Location

Brain Stimulation Lab

About the Brain Stimulation Laboratory & Faculty

The BSL was started over 20 years ago and is a national and international leader in developing and testing new brain stimulation methods as potential treatments. Dr. George, the course director, published the first study of daily prefrontal TMS as an antidepressant in 1993 and has been actively involved with the technology ever since. The BSL was the organizing site for the NIMH sponsored OPT-TMS study. The clinical and research environment is rich and fertile. Currently the BSL averages 10 ECT treatments each day, and around 20 TMS sessions, either clinical or research. The MUSC BSL was the first to demonstrate that one can safely perform TMS within an MRI scanner and there are active studies with this technology. The BSL currently has over 12 different TMS stimulators, representing most of the current manufacturers on the planet. TMS is used actively as a research tool in knock-out cognitive studies, or in excitability. MUSC has one of the few fully automated paired-pulse systems as well as the only bihemispheric paired pulse system in the US.

Course Faculty

Mark S. George, M.D.

Distinguished Professor Psychiatry, Radiology & Neurology, Director, Brain Stimulation Laboratory Editor-in-Chief

E. Baron Short, M.D., MS

Associate Professor, Medical Director of Brain Stimulation

Xingbao Li, M.D.

Associate Professor

Jeffrey J. Borckardt, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine

Lisa M. McTeague Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Registration

To register for the course and pay online, please select one of the following registration links:

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Intensive Course registration
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Intensive Course registration
- ECT Course Registration is closed!

The TMS course registration fee is $4,500. The ECT course registration fee is $5,000. (The fee may be waived for full-time MUSC faculty and trainees. Please inquire when registering.)

If you would like to pay the registration fee with a check, then please contact Minnie Dobbins at dobbinsm@musc.edu so a registration form can be emailed to you. The completed registration form will need to be included in the envelope with your check.

Please make checks payable to MUSC and mail both your check and registration form to:

MUSC Bursar’s Office
1 South Park Circle
Building 1, Suite 402
Charleston, SC 29407

The course is open to physicians, nurses, researchers and other professionals and trainees, from the U.S. and abroad. This program is sponsored by the Medical University of South Carolina. A written notice of cancellation must be received 30 days prior to the start of this activity. A 10% cancellation fee will be assessed at that time; after that date, cancellation requests cannot be honored.

Americans with Disabilities Act: It is the policy of the Medical University of South Carolina not to discriminate against any person on the basis of disabilities. If you feel you need services or the auxiliary aids mentioned in this act in order to fully participate in this continuing medical education activity, please call the Office of CME at 843-876-1925 or attach a note to your registration form.

Contact Us