News

With the General Election set to take place on February 8^th Epilepsy Ireland is using the opportunity to further highlight matters important to people with epilepsy and their families with all election candidates.

We have selected six issues which are frequently highlighted by the people with epilepsy and their families we work with as being major factors in their day to day lives. These were also among the most common issues highlighted in our recent advocacy survey.

Futureneuro have announced University College Cork as their newest academic partner.

Initially, UCC’s collaboration with Futureneuro will come in the form of Dr. Danny Costello of Cork University Hospital & UCC who will join Futureneuro as a funded investigator.

A new study which looked at the working relationship between HSE Epilepsy Nurse Specialists and Epilepsy Ireland’s Community Resource Officers in delivering patient-centred care for people with epilepsy in Ireland has recently been published in the Journal of Interprofessional Care.

The study used a participatory action research (PAR) approach and featured collaboration between FutureNeuro, Royal College of Surgeons, NUI Maynooth, St. James’ Hospital & DCU.

A new study recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience has revealed how memory and abnormal brain activity are linked in people with epilepsy.

Memory impairment or loss is a common complaint amongst people with epilepsy and this study, which was conducted by Cedars-Sinai in the US, investigated the area of the brain which is key to memory –the hippocampus.

A major new study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine has stated that levetiracetam (Keppra), fosphenytoin (Pro-Epanutin) and valproate (Epilim) are equally effective in the treatment of Status Epilepticus.

The international study featured collaboration between a number of institutions in the UK & the US and sought to establish whether the drugs stated above are effective in the treatment of Status Epilepticus.

A new study undertaken by a number of institutions in the United States and recently published in the journal, JAMA Neurology , has recommended that mothers with epilepsy continue to breastfeed as normal despite being on epilepsy medication.

A recent study from the University of Alabama in the USA published in the medical journal, Epilepsy & Behaviour has looked at the use of the Responsive Neurostimulator System (RNS) in the treatment of conditions associated with epilepsy.

We are delighted that Epilepsy Ireland’s proposal was one of the 122 projects from around the country to receive funding under the SláinteCare Integration Fund.

The Fund was established to support innovative projects led by hospitals, primary care centres and patient organisations that have the potential to improve citizen engagement in their own healthcare or that can encourage a shift in care from the hospital to the community.

As 2019 draws to a close, it allows for a period of reflection on the work of our organisation over the past 12 months. We are immensely proud to have been a continuous pillar of support to people with epilepsy and their families over the year and we look forward to continuing our work in 2020.

Epilepsy Ireland would like to congratulate our colleagues in FutureNeuro after it was confirmed that €3.9mill has been awarded for their Blockchain & AI-Enabled Stratified Trial System (BESTS) project.

Funding was granted under the Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund (DTIF) which is run by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation.