Friday, February 17, 2023

Neurology/Neuroscience Research Seminar

12:00 PM to 1:00 PM

CME credit is available, click here

Attendance must be registered within 6 months of attendance to be awarded credit.

Recorded archives of live activities are considered enduring materials.

Viewing of a recorded session is for reference only, no CME credit can be claimed.

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Functional seizures, otherwise known as psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES), can appear behaviorally similar to epileptic seizures, but their treatment is fundamentally different. However, the average delay to diagnosis of functional seizures was 8.4 years (median 3 years), during which patients are treated ineffectively for epilepsy. I'll review the computer-aided diagnostic tools that we've developed for the early identification of patients with functional seizures using clinical history, EEG, and MRI. I'll also discuss how these tools may interact with clinical wisdom to shorten delays to diagnosis because we think earlier diagnosis also leads to more effective treatment. I'll also make a brief note about how we're working to validate Time-to-Event designed clinical trials for seizures, which aim to improve trial safety, recruitment, and cost by identifying non-responders earlier.

“Computer-Aided Early Identification of Functional Seizures (with a brief note about clinical trials in epilepsy)?”

Wesley Kerr, M.D., Ph.D.

Wesley Kerr, MD, PhD, is a clinical seizure specialist and biostatistical researcher. He completed his physician-scientist training and neurology residency at UCLA and worked with Mark S Cohen and John M Stern for his research. He completed clinical epilepsy fellowship at the University of Michigan in 2022. His research work focuses on helping clinicians make better medical decisions with data, with an emphasis on patients with functional seizures, otherwise known as psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES), and statistical analysis of clinical trials.