Anup Patel, MD: The Role of Technology in Epilepsy

"It's really interesting because those are all based on machine learning and some technology that's available but more enhancements are coming and more updates are on their way, so it's an exciting field and we think it's going to make a major impact on our treatment of epilepsy patients in the future."

At the 2019 American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Anup Patel, MD, spoke with NeurologyLive about the role of wearable technology in pediatric epilepsy.

Patel explained that the ultimate goal is to have a device that can detect seizures accurately with very few false alarms, if any, that can alert a caregiver or loved one of an epileptic seizure.

The section chief of neurology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital discussed some of the technology currently available. For Patel, the best wearable technology on the market is the Embrace Watch, which takes a watch-based approach to seizure detection and uses motion sensor accelerometry and a galvanic skin response. The Embrace Watch algorithm detects generalized tonic-clonic seizures over 90% of the time.

Another interesting device Patel discussed is an EMG-based device which captures the sensing of muscle twitches that occur during a generalized tonic-clonic seizure.

The last device Patel discussed is one made by Ceribell that captures EEG data and is predominately set in an inpatient or ICU hospital setting. The rapid response EEG algorithm is based on rhythm detection and can alarm and alert a non-neurology staff member that a person is in status epilepticus.

As more enhancements and updates are on their way, this technology has the ability to make an impact on treatment epilepsy and will become increasingly important as time goes on.