Early Awareness Towards Epilepsy Transition

"The whole idea is to not unload this like a ton of bricks at the last minute. But actually, make this a very slow process and do 1 thing at a time.”

A lack of awareness or guidance in the process of patients seeing a pediatric epilepsy care specialist to an adult care specialist can make the transition process for a patient with epilepsy difficult. Sucheta M. Joshi, MD, MS, described it as “a truck hitting you,” for those who come into the transition process with little to no understanding of what next steps they might be taking in their care.

Joshi, along with Nicholas Beimer, MD, were part of a study that demonstrated the validity of EpiTRAQ, an epilepsy-based transition tool that helps patients go through that process by checking off parts of their disease management that they should be informed about. The point of the tool is to not only help patients become more aware of the process, but also enforce the need for pediatric epilepsy specialists to have those conversations earlier in their care process, so that patients are not as blindsided by the responsibilities they may incur.

Joshi, a clinical professor of pediatrics and medical director of pediatric epilepsy, and Beimer, an assistant professor of epilepsy, both at Michigan Medicine, sat down with NeurologyLive to discuss the importance of starting the transition process earlier for patients with epilepsy, and why EpiTRAQ is designed to do just that.