Join us on our social media channels as we talk about pediatric epilepsy surgery with experts in the fields of neurology and neurosurgery. If you’re the parent of a child with drug-resistant seizures, we’ll help you understand how to start the conversation about a referral for an evaluation to determine whether your child is a candidate for epilepsy surgery.
NOVEMBER IS
EPILEPSY AWARENESS MONTH
It’s time to start the conversation about epilepsy surgery
30
Days
8
Webinars
03 — November
The epilepsy surgery journey: what are the barriers?
What are the barriers to a prompt referral for an epilepsy surgery evaluation? There are many, including reluctance by the referring neurologist, insurance challenges, and parental fears. This webinar will help you understand how to overcome the barriers on your journey.
Christine Baca, MD
NEUROSCIENCES CENTER, ANSCHUTZ
Dr. Baca is an adult neurologist whose specific interests innclude health transition from pediatric to adult care. She is the author of “A journey around the world”: Parent narratives of the journey to pediatric resective epilepsy surgery and beyond and “It was five years of hell”- Parental experiences of navigating and processing the slow and arduous time to pediatric resective epilepsy surgery.” Dr. Baca joins us to discuss the often excruciating parent journey to epilepsy surgery for children with drug-resistant seizures.
Luke D. Tomycz, MD
NEW JERSEY PEDIATRIC NEUROSCIENCE INSTITUTE
Dr. Tomycz is a pediatric epilepsy surgeon and the author of Deciphering the surgical treatment gap for drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE): A literature review. He joins us to discuss what the research says about barriers to surgery, including:
- the knowledge gap among doctors in
identifying potential surgical candidates - lack of coordinated patient care
- parent misconceptions of surgery
- socioeconomic disparities impeding access to care
- cost and complexity of the preoperative evaluation
- lack of federal resource allocation for the research of surgical therapies for epilepsy
Michelle Mottern, NP
COMMUNITY ADVISORY COUNCIL
Michelle Mottern is a nurse practitioner and member of The Brain Recovery Project’s Community Advisory Council. Her son required hemispherectomy for seizures caused by Rasmussen’s encephalitis. She joins our webinar to discuss the barriers to surgery on her journey to epilepsy surgery for her child.
Audrey Vernick, COPAA-SEAT 1 & 2
DIRECTOR, PATIENT AND FAMILY ADVOCACY
Audrey Vernick is the Director of Patient and Family Advocacy for The Brain Recovery Project. Her son required hemispherectomy for seizures, including infantile spasms, caused by a massive unilateral stroke. She faced many barriers to epilepsy surgery including reluctance by her son’s neurologist to refer her son for a surgical evaluation.
10 — November
POSTPONED – NEW DATE TBD
Risks of drug-resistant seizures
What are the risks of drug-resistant seizures in children? This webinar will review the long-term consequences of seizures in childhood, such as psychiatric dysfunction, regression or loss of skills, and sudden unexplained death due to epilepsy.
Scott Perry, MD
COOK CHILDREN’S medical center
Dr. Perry is the Director of Neurology at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. His clinical and research interests focus on the treatment of childhood onset epilepsy, specifically those patients with uncontrolled epilepsy or those for which the cause has not been determined. Dr. Perry has a deep interest in the use of surgical therapies to treat and cure epilepsy.
12 — November
When to consider surgery
When should surgery be considered for a child with drug-resistant seizures? It’s sooner than you think. This webinar will introduce you to the situations which warrant a referral for an epilepsy surgery evaluation.
Charuta Joshi, MD
CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF COLORADO
Dr. Joshi is director of the pediatric epilepsy fellowship program and neurology outreach services at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Her clinical interests include epilepetic encephalopathy (brain dysfunction caused by seizures) and epilepsy surgery.
17 — November
Phase 1 evaluations
What are the non-invasive tests that doctors use to determine whether a child is a candidate for surgery? This webinar will explore video EEG, MRI, SPECT, PET, MEG, Wada test, neuropsychological evaluations, and other assessments that are commonly used during phase 1 testing.
Elaine Wyllie, MD
THE CLEVELAND CLINIC
Dr. Elaine Wyllie is a world renowned thought leader in neurology and epilepsy. She is editor of the leading medical textbook in the field, Wyllie’s Treatment of Epilepsy, now in its sixth edition, which informs physicians in countries on every continent.
Ahsan Moosa Valappil, MD
THE CLEVELAND CLINIC
Dr. Ahsan Moosa Valappil is a neurologist whose interests include the surgical treatment of epilepsy, hemispheric epilepsy syndrome and hemispherectomy/ hemispherotomy, Rasmussen encephalitis, autoimmune epilepsy, video EEG monitoring, invasive EEG monitoring.
19 — November
Phase 2 evaluations
Some children need additional testing if phase 1 evaluations don’t give a clear picture of where the seizures start. These additional tests require entering the brain. This webinar will review the various invasive tests used during phase 2 evaluation, including stereo EEG and grids.
Taylor Abel, MD
UPMC PITTSBURGH
24 — November
What are the epilepsy surgeries?
When someone says “epilepsy surgery” – what do they mean? This webinar will provide you with an overview of all the epilepsy surgeries.
Sandi Lam, MD, MBA
LURIE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Dr. Sandi Lam is the division head of neurosurgery where she specializes in minimally invasive epilepsy surgeries. She is one of few neurosurgeons in the U.S. who perform endoscopic hemispherectomy.
25 — November
Epilepsy surgery for infantile spasms
Many parents don’t know that brain surgery is an option for children with drug-resistant infantile spasms. This webinar will focus on the epilepsy surgery options for children with infantile spasms, a type of seizure that can cause severe regression, loss of developmental milestones, vision loss, and sometimes death.
Shaun Hussain, MD
MATTEL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL @ UCLA
Dr. Hussain is a pediatric epilepsy specialist who focuses on severe childhood disorders including infantile spasms, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, and Dravet Syndrome.
Aria Fallah, MD, MS
MATTEL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL @ UCLA
Dr. Fallah specializes in the research and treatment of pediatric neurosurgical conditions, including medically intractable epilepsy, hydrocephalus and spasticity. He also has special expertise in brain tumors, arachnoid cysts, spinal dysraphism, craniofacial anomalies and other congenital malformations of the developing nervous system.
30 — November
Making the decision
How do you make the decision of whether your child should have surgery? And what type? This session will introduce you to a framework for decision-making that may work for you.
George Ibrahim, MD, PhD
THE HOSPITAL FOR SICK children
Dr. George Ibrahim is a pediatric neurosurgeon whose clinical and research interests include the surgical treatment of medically-intractable epilepsy, spasticity and functional disorders in children. His interests also include the intersection of global health, neuroethics and neurosurgery, including the provision of neurosurgical care to the world’s most vulnerable children.
