Milken Institute Releases Epilepsy Giving Smarter Guide
Epilepsy News From: Wednesday, October 12, 2016
The Epilepsy Foundation is pleased to share with you a report developed by the Milken Institute’s Center for Strategic Philanthropy that describes the barriers to epilepsy research progress and key philanthropic opportunities. The Epilepsy Giving Smarter Guide empowers people living with epilepsy, supporters, and stakeholders to make informed, strategic decisions when directing their philanthropy and energy towards the gap in epilepsy research.
The Epilepsy Foundation supports people living with seizures and their caregivers every day by providing community services, national and local advocacy, public awareness efforts, and education. In addition, the Foundation has a multi-faceted research and new therapies program that includes supporting the full spectrum of research required to bring new therapies to market.
- Over the last 48 years, the Epilepsy Foundation and its generous supporters have provided over $56 million in funding for research.
- Fellowship and research training support from the Foundation launched the careers of many of the top epilepsy scientists in the country today.
- Foundation funding has helped advance development of improved epilepsy diagnostics and new drug, device, and dietary therapies, particularly at their earliest stages.
Despite these improvements, however, over half of people diagnosed with epilepsy don’t know the underlying cause, the trial-and-error approach to selecting therapies is hardly “precise,” and a third of people with epilepsy continue to have seizures that are not controlled by the available therapies.
Clearly, there is more work to be done.
The Milken Report highlights several problems in epilepsy research that present barriers to progress and corresponding philanthropic opportunities. These are:
- Inadequate precision healthcare infrastructure
- Inefficient process for bringing new therapies to market
- Limited resources and collaborations between preclinical and clinical researchers
- Lack of cohesive care that addresses epilepsy associated conditions
The Epilepsy Foundation is addressing these problems.
We envision a future in which we will make use of dramatic technological improvements in basic, clinical, and information science to drive innovation in epilepsy research. Therefore, we will expand our investment in precision medicine approaches, such as the Rare Epilepsy Network, to create clinical registries that enable integration of multiple types of data (such as EEG, neuroimaging, genomics, metabolomics, and clinical) to find patterns that efficiently predict drug response and adverse side effects and that generate new hypotheses for basic science and preclinical studies.
We will offer support for high-risk, bold new approaches to solve challenges identified by people with epilepsy and their caregivers through our Epilepsy Innovation Institute.
We will work with industry and governmental partners through the Epilepsy Foundation Research Roundtable to find solutions to regulatory barriers to speed delivery of novel therapies to people with epilepsy.
Our research program will continue to focus on training the next generation of epilepsy scientists and accelerating the development of new therapies.
And we will continue to be the leader in raising public awareness, promoting educational training, providing support services to people living with epilepsy, and fighting for the rights of individuals impacted by epilepsy.
When you think of strategic philanthropic giving, we hope you will consider joining the Epilepsy Foundation’s efforts to achieve the vision of “no seizures and no side effects” for all those living with epilepsy.
Donate now to support our efforts to lead the fight to overcome the challenges of living with epilepsy and to accelerate therapies to stop seizures, find cures, and save lives.
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Reviewed Date
Wednesday, October 12, 2016