Danielle Andrade, MD, MSc: Ensuring Smooth Transitions to Adult Epilepsy Care

“Do things step by step. You don’t have to do everything [for the transition] when the patient is 17 years old. Actually, you shouldn’t be doing everything when the patient is 17 or close to their last visit in the pediatric system. Things should be done slowly as the patient is growing up.”

Transitioning a patient with epilepsy from pediatric care to adult care is a challenge for not only the patient, who is losing their physician, but for the physicians involved in actually transitioning the patient. Danielle Andrade, MD, MSc, told NeurologyLive that “it is impossible for one person to do everything,” and that oftentimes, a team of health care professionals is involved.

Andrade, an adult neurologist and professor of medicine, neurology, at the University of Toronto, discussed the transition process at the 2019 International Epilepsy Congress, in Bangkok, Thailand, detailing the need for more institutions and practices to take advantage of programs that aid in moving the process along. In her conversation with NeurologyLive, she provided further insight into what pediatric neurologists should be aware of when providing the adult neurologist information about the patient.

She noted that—outside of certain particularly difficult to manage epilepsies—having a summarized version of the trajectory of the disease and the patient’s responses to medications to provide the new physician, in place of volumes of charts, is certainly helpful.

For more coverage of IEC 2019, click here.

REFERENCE

Andrade D. The need for transition programs. Presented at: 2019 International Epilepsy Congress. June 22-26, 2019; Bangkok, Thailand. Presentation 71.