Zachary Grinspan, MD, MS: Collaborating Across Specialties to Improve Outcomes

“To take what we've learned to impact patient outcomes and change the course of these illnesses; we need to work with our colleagues across multiple disciplines.”

Zachary Grinspan, MD, MS, director of the Pediatric Epilepsy Program, and Isaac Mayefsky, an MD candidate at Weill Cornell Medicine, reported results from their study of status epilepticus (SE) patients treated in the emergency department at the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society (AES), December 6-10, 2019, in Baltimore, Maryland.

Of the outcomes observed, patients were receiving lower doses of benzodiazepines than recommended, with other deviations from SE protocol noted as well.

Grinspan stressed the importance of communication and collaboration between epilepsy specialists and the emergency department, noting that an increase in awareness of SE care will lead to less protocol deviation in future treatment. Mayefsky, a pupil of Grinspan’s, emphasized the importance mentorship has had on his early clinical experience and his career aspirations that include research on outcome improvement.

The pair sat down with NeurologyLive at AES 2019 to discuss ways of improving clinical outcomes in SE, as well as the data from their study.

For more coverage of AES 2019, click here.