VIREPA - EEG in the Diagnosis and Management of Epilepsy - 4th edition

Course content

The course will cover the basic elements of the practice of EEG in its application to the diagnostic work up and the management of persons with suspected or already established epilepsy, adults and children.
It will be practice oriented and aimed at the general neurologist / paediatric neurologist / paediatrician dealing with - but not exclusively involved in - epilepsy care.
Subject material will emphasize the basic the role of the (standard) EEG in the diagnosis and management of epilepsy, common misconceptions (positive and negative) and potential pitfalls.
Attention will be given to practical aspects, including the set-up of an EEG lab, minimal standards, electrodes, montages, provocation methods and the optimalisation of EEG requests and reports, specifically in the context of epilepsy.
Clinical aspects will include definitions of spike, spike and wave, sharp wave, etc., examples of various types of epileptiform activity, sensitivity, specificity and predictive value of specific EA patterns for diagnosis of epilepsy or specific epilepsy syndromes, the recognition of non epileptic sharp phenomena, benign variants & artefacts and the possible diagnostic significance of non specific EEG phenomena. Maturational aspects will be dealt with as will be the diagnostic significance of spontaneous or induced sleep.
The course will address the different kinds of EEG studies, extending from standard awake recordings to extensive long term EEG and video monitoring studies, with their specific requirements and indications but, since this is a basic course, intended to be relevant for day to day practice in average clinical circumstances, the emphasis will be on standard EEG, including sleep and the regular provocation methods in adults and children.
Some basic knowledge of EEG, both theoretical and practical, is a prerequisite since the technique of EEG recording and presentation and basic underlying neurophysiology will only be dealt with insofar as relevant for epilepsy.

Learning objectives

The course, on completion, will enable the participants to improve the quality of the diagnostic approach in adults and children with epilepsy or other suspected paroxysmal disorders in the EEG lab of their clinics. It will help them to decide on the specific type of study, indicated for specific clinical problems. It will improve their competence and confidence in the recognition and differentiation of epileptic and other phenomena in the adult and paediatric awake and sleep EEG and their understanding of the clinical significance of these phenomena for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of epilepsy and epilepsy syndromes.

Course format

The course itself is divided into 12 units of 2 weeks each, beginning with an introduction to the VIREPA e-learning platform, followed by 11 learning units. The learning material (textbooks and references) is available for download. The tasks to be worked on in each unit to achieve credits should be solved within an active communication process among all participants, guided by the experts in the discussion fora on the e-learning platform. These tasks help to deepen the theoretically gained knowledge from the learning material and enable to transfer this knowledge to the clinical practice of each learner. You can download a draft version of the time schedule of the course. The participants are expected to spend about 8 hours (~4 hours/week) for individual study of the learning material, for reading/writing contributions in the forum and for the completion of the tasks, which will imply the contribution of EEG samples. 

All tutors are practically working in their special field, moderating the distance courses in addition to their regular duties. This gives participants the unique opportunity to draw upon their expertise and practical experience even beyond the mere requirements of the course.

Entry criteria 

• Minimum of 4 months of EEG training;
  
• 3 years of training in neurology, neuropediatrics, clinical neurophysiology, psychiatry or neurosurgery, or combinations of these.

Certification

Successful participation in this course is awarded with Credit Points for the core curriculum “Epileptological EEG” for the European Certification in Epileptology for Medical Doctors of EUREPA. To pass, participants have to complete the tasks during the e-learning phase, including a series of general questions and diagnostic tasks which will be presented at the end of the course.

Duration

The course will start in the fall of 2009 and last until spring of 2010. The exact dates are still to be announced.

Course fee

950 Euro/respectively 900 Euro for EUREPA members. A restricted number of bursaries will be available. Full bursaries will only be available for particpants living in countries with "low" income. Most bursaries (for participants living in countries with "lower middle income") will be partial bursaries involving own payment of 250 Euro/respectively 200 Euro for EUREPA members. (See categories according to the statistics of the World Bank.)

Number of participants

up to 30

Technical requirements

Personal Computer or Mac (with Internet access)
Operating system: Windows 98 / 2000 / NT / XP, Apple Mac OS X, Linux/Unix
Internet access: Modem, ISDN or DSL (recommended)
Browser: Internet Explorer 5.5 (and higher), Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera, Konqueror
PDF-Reader (e.g. Adobe Acrobat)

Course Directors

Dr. Walter van Emde Boas and Dr. Demetrios N. Velis, Heemstede, the Netherlands.

Deadline for application

July 31st, 2009

Application

For application you have to fill in our online application form and your application must contain

• a signed confirmation of the neurology department on the 4 months of EEG training;
  
• a signed confirmation of the neurology department on the 3 years of neurological or comparable training
  
• CV
  
• list of publications
  

For further information, please contact

Epilepsy Academy Office
Maraweg 21
D - 33617 Bielefeld
Germany

Tel. +49 521 144 - 4310
Fax +49 521 144 - 4311

Email: office@epilepsy-academy.org
Web: http://www.epilepsy-academy.org