On Friday, March 30, the long awaited report Epilepsy Across the Spectrum: Promoting Health and Understanding, was released by the Institute of Medicine of the USA. It was the product of an intensive study by the Committee on the Public Health Dimensions of the Epilepsies. The Committee had experts from many fields.
This report focuses on the unmet health care needs faced by people with epilepsy and by those who care for them. The recommendations include the need for better information about the epidemiology and consequences of epilepsy. There is also a call for the creation of standards for epilepsy care and for better training for health care professionals at all levels, because the Committee found that knowledge about this disease and how it can destroy the lives of those who suffer from it was quite limited in the general medical community. Among many solutions, the report calls for better integration and coordination of care as well as enhanced advocacy. Increasing the public awareness of epilepsy and its consequences was also an important area for attention.
This report will help the efforts to improve epilepsy care worldwide, but may be particularly useful for the epilepsy advocacy that is developing following the European Declaration on Epilepsy as well as the Pan American Health Organization resolution to make epilepsy a health care priority. The report will be extremely useful for framing the discussion that epilepsy advocates around the world have with their health care organizations.
We urge you to read the report so that you can determine how the wealth of material can help efforts in your country to improve epilepsy care. This report provides objective material that supports many of the issues that we have struggled to resolve for years.
In addition to the report, please look at the brief message about the report from Dr. Gary Mathern, Chair of League’s Strategic Planning Committee.
Please read the report to determine how it can help you and the people you care for.
Thank you,
Edward Bertram, M.D.
University of Virginia
Information Officer, ILAE