I agree that when neurologists sit at a desk they do more than simply sit behind a desk.1 However, newly appointed neurologists may ask, ‘What is a desk?’ The era of comfortable, ordered and controlled neurology where patients attend the relative calm of the outpatient clinic is passing as neurology moves closer to the front line.

Contrary to comfortable neurology— seated at desk with coffee and biscuit to hand—modern neurology is delivered by neurologists who are ‘suited and booted’ in the medical admissions unit, surrounded by bleeping drip stands, the chatter and clatter of …