Preface

The idea for the book developed during my training as specialist in clinical neurophysiology. In many countries, clinical neurophysiology testing is an extension of neurology or even a subspecialty like neuromuscular or epilepsy. However, understanding the electrodiagnostics of the nervous system as a whole has considerable advantages, which is why it is its own discipline in other countries. I found there was no single text that tied the various procedures together (or the transition of adult to paediatric testing), especially following the new UK Clinical Neurophysiology Curriculum in 2021, in the same way that the Oxford Handbook of Clinical medicine (now in its eleventh edition) serves as a cornerstone of medical school education or in the way that the Oxford Handbook of Neurology supplements a rotation in neurology. It was during my time as President of the Association of Trainees in Clinical Neurophysiology (ATCN) that the difficulties in meeting this varied curriculum faced by trainees across the country became even more apparent (e.g. due to differences in the number and type of procedures carried out by various centres and the local variety of cases seen).