Ramblings from the Bench and Bedside: A Week in the Life of an Epilepsy Clinician Scientist - Part 2
Click here for part 1: Ramblings from the Bench and Bedside
Let me tell you why you should be very excited about the upcoming annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society (AES), which will occur in my town (San Antonio, TX) on December 3-7, 2010. As the chair of the Scientific Program of this upcoming meeting, let me give you a personal preview of the upcoming meeting.
In early December, the 64th annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society and the 3rd Biennial Epilepsy Congress for the North American Region of the ILAE will convene in downtown San Antonio, next to the famous Riverwalk area. There are about 1,200 abstracts that will be presented at this meeting to over 4,000 attendees from over 60 countries. Symposia, Plenary lectures, Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and a variety of Scientific and Mentoring events are sprinkled over 5 days in the world’s best Epilepsy meeting. Epilepsy research from across the globe is presented at different venues ranging from poster boards, walking tours of posters, platform presentations, investigator’s workshops and other media. The energy of young and experienced clinicians and investigators is felt throughout these venues, and it is measured by the number of new collaborations, approaches and advances to be presented in Baltimore at the 2011 meeting. The meeting is the result of a very large planning committee with groups who prepare carefully each of the events in this program. The choreography of meeting is like a large ballet requiring the synchronization of multiple activities, each of which, if poorly performed might ruin the overall experience of the meeting. More than 300 volunteer AES members collaborated to plan all these activities along with experienced AES staff. Here is a daily sample of offerings at the annual meeting day by day:
FRIDAY
On Friday December 3rd, there is a symposium of that examines management techniques in an Epilepsy clinic to improve patient care. We also have the annual series on fundaments of Epilepsy, which focuses upon Psychogenic Non-epileptic spells. Seven special interest groups meet to discuss issues on neuropathology, infantile spasms, EEG definition of seizures, epidemiology of Epilepsy, osteoporosis induced by AEDs, sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), and the neuropsychology group. At the same time, the Spanish symposium reviews advances in Status Epilepticus. The night is crowned with simmering debate, the Hot Topics Symposium. Two areas that will be discussed in detail at the Hot Topics Symposium include advances on combat post-traumatic epilepsy and the impact of Health Care Reform on Epilepsy care.
SATURDAY
Saturday will have a different feel than prior years. The Presidential Symposium and the Hoyer lecture were moved to this date, and about 400 posters will be presented by their authors with no other competing activities between noon and 1:30 pm. New to this year’s annual meeting are the walking tours of the posters. This initiative is targeted to junior members and young faculty members and will be led by experienced epileptologists including a few past Presidents of the society. The morning begins with the Hoyer lecture presented by Dr. Dennis Spencer, a pioneer in Epilepsy neurosurgery. At 11:30 am, the poster session starts with the authors of the posters present from Noon to 2 pm. This is the soul of the meeting with almost 400 presentations at once. To help navigate through the maze of poster presentations, we developed walking tours by experts to help lead younger epileptologists. We have confirmed walking tours of posters on basic mechanisms of epilepsy and AEDs led by David Prince and Robert MacDonald starting at noon. Jean Gotman and Brian Litt will be touring the posters on computer analysis of EEG starting at 12:20 pm. Frank Drislane and Susan Herman will discuss the posters on EEG and Epilepsy and their walking tour leaves at 12:40 pm. At 1 pm, Jim Cereghino and myself will examine the abstracts on clinical studies of AEDs. Bruce Hermann and Kim Meador will discuss the poster presentations on neuropsychology of Epilepsy. The Presidential symposium will then be presented in early afternoon. This is one of the three plenary symposia at the meeting, and it was developed by the president of the society, Dr. Jaideep Kapur who selected investigators that have examined the role of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in Epilepsy and Status Epilepticus. This symposium has a mixture of basic investigations but each presentation has a clinical translational side. Later, we have the Antiepileptic Therapy (AET) symposium. This year the AET symposium evaluates the impact of particular AEDs on channelopathies. An interesting alternative choice is to attend the Investigator’s workshop on the mechanisms of seizures in Alzheimer’s disease or the Translational Investigator’s workshop on the number of copies of mutations in epilepsy. Special Interest Groups (SIG) will be held in the morning at the time of the Hoyer lecture, or late evening. Of particular interest, the Neurostimulation SIG will review breakthroughs on the stimulation devices studied in the SANTE, RNS, and trigeminal stimulation clinical trials.
SUNDAY
On Sunday December 5, the activities begin with the early morning business meeting of the AES at 8:00 am, followed by our traditional annual course. This year, the annual course examines the clinical role of Inflammatory and Infectious causes in Epilepsy. There is a 2 hr lunch break to attend the authors’ presentations at the 400 posters in the 2nd session from noon – 2 pm. Among the posters, we have the late breaking abstracts. Walking tours of the posters will be offered starting at noon. Drs. Tim Pedley and Larry Hirsch will discuss abstracts on clinical neurophysiology of Epilepsy. Drs. Kuzniecky and So will select among the many imaging abstracts for those reflecting major advances or novel techniques. Drs. Gidal and Bainbridge will present selected abstracts on pharmacology of AEDs. Drs. Dennis Spencer and Roper will examine the abstracts on surgery for epilepsy. Lastly, Drs. Berg and Hauser will review the most important works presented on epidemiology of Epilepsy. At the same time than the annual course, we also have the Investigator’s workshops which consist of three parallel mini-symposia for a total of 12 during the day. Topics of great interest include early detection of epileptogenesis to discover the therapeutic window for prevention, and novel neuroimaging techniques to understand better the impact of epilepsy. At the evening, several SIGs will convene and the professionals in epilepsy will analyze neuropsychological testing impacts the care of people with Epilepsy.
MONDAY
Monday December 6th, 2010 will begin with several SIGs and the Merritt-Putnam symposium. This year, the impact of the age when the epileptic condition begins will be discussed. As the prior two days, the presence of the authors of poster presentations is also unopposed to favor the interactions between attendees and poster presenters. Walking tours will also start at Noon ending before 2 pm. The walking tour mentors include Scott Baraban and Nico Moshe who will deliberate on animal models of seizures and epilepsy. Karen Wilcox and Mike Rogawski will select works on pharmacology of AEDs, while Bill Theodore and Greg Worrell will examine the functional and emerging imaging techniques. Peter Crino and Alica Goldman will review the posters on genetics of Epilepsy. Lastly, Alan Ettinger and Steve Schachter will discuss the abstracts on psychiatric issues in Epilepsy. Early in the afternoon, we will have three parallel platform sessions. These works were selected from the >1200 submissions for important contributions. Sessions are divided between clinical, surgical and imaging, and translational research. There is some overlap between these topics. Among the most interesting platforms, there is a work on selected amygdalohippocampectomy. The pediatric highlights is presented concurrently, and the pediatric state of the art of epilepsy will present a discussion on identifying and managing pediatric co-morbidities.
TUESDAY
Tuesday Dec. 7th is the last day of the annual meeting of the AES. Two plenary symposia highlight the day. The plenary II session is being directed by Dr. Greg Bergey which is focused on Neurostimulation. The other large symposium is the North American commission of ILAE symposium. The lecturers will be contrasting approaches to intracranial electrodes in Europe and North America.
The AES meeting promises to be very exciting. I am expecting 4000 of my closest friends to come and enjoy this meeting. Welcome to San Antonio!