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Simon Shorvon
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A lot of work was been devoted
this year to developing the International League Against
Epilepsy’s website www.epilepsy.org). The site has
two main functions. First, to provide information about the
ILAE and
assistance on ILAE matters to ILAE members, and to the ILAE
administrative bodies. The second purpose is to provide information
about epilepsy for professionals worldwide, and over time to
become an important epilepsy portal.
The website is overseen by a task force who advise on the
content and the functionality of the site. The task force
collaborates with Mr. Joe Wall in the ILAE Hartford office
who is responsible for implementing the decisions of the
committee and for the general development of the site. In
the past few years, the committee and the team in Hartford,
under Mr. Wall, have made great progress in establishing
the website as an important element of the work of the ILAE.
The task force has overseen a major redesign and restructuring
of the website. A new logo was adopted by the ILAE in April
2003 and is at the head
of the homepage which has been redesigned to
show highlights, news items, details of future
congresses and other topical matters. There are also links
to the IBE, ILAE congress sites and other
epilepsy-related sites. The site is well ranked in the major
worldwide search engines.
This site content has been added in two stages. In Stage
1, ILAE-related information has been assembled and added.
This includes copies of the ILAE
mission and strategic plan, and data on the executive committee,
offices, commissions, task forces, publications and congresses.
Information regarding the activities of the League’s
92 chapters is also
complete, with individual chapter pages with links to their
own websites. An archive section was also
created to house non-current reports, annual reports, commission
documents, etc. The Stage 1 work is now largely complete.
We are now embarked on Stage 2, the goal of which is to
develop the site to provide comprehensive information on
epilepsy for the use of professionals around the world. The
site will, we hope, evolve into an important worldwide portal
for professional epilepsy information. Epilepsy information
is mainly contained in a section called Resource Central.
Within this section are currently six subsections:
- An Epilepsy Information Centre (EIC) Section
in which there is a searchable index of the 1,300 documents
held in the EIC in Zurich.
- A section with electronic copies of the best
of the EIC documents. This is currently being assembled.
Some videos and pamphlets are online now, and we plan 50
documents and 25 videos online in the next period. Some
are translated into several languages.
- A list of the drug names/formulations/ preparations
in each country around the world, drawn up by Bob Fisher.
- A
selected list of books in print about epilepsy with a
brief description. This is now being finalized, and in
the future there is the possibility of interactive reviews.
- A selected list of current journal articles. This
is in the process of construction. It is planned to have
a list updated regularly with abstracts of the best articles
published in epilepsy in the previous month.
- Selected review articles drawn from the published
literature on specific topics within epilepsy (epilepsy/bone
disease, epilepsy/neurosystercicosis etc). This is currently
in the planning stage.
In addition, there are a number of new behind the scenes
features. These include a powerful search engine, password
protected areas for ILAE Chapter Officers, an Executive Committee
section, and statistical monitoring to provide details of
visits. A legal disclaimer and privacy policy has also been
posted. The templates for individual chapter websites are
done and are currently being used by 17 chapters.
Epilepsy Information Centre (EIC)
The EIC has undergone important changes in the past 12 months.
This is largely because the EIC has decided to refocus its
activities on the provision of information for professional
rather than lay
audiences, and because the IBE has decided to withdraw its
own sponsorship but remain committed to providing information.
These have resulted in important changes in the procedure
and focus of the EIC, which have been put in place to link
the EIC more closely to the ILAE, and in particular to the
ILAE website. The ILAE website now acts as the main outlet
for EIC information provision and databases. The EIC and
the website will both closely work towards the ILAE goal
of being a major information portal on epilepsy information
for professionals and for members. The collection of more
than 1600 documents in Zurich, which has been accumulated
in the past few years, remains an important resource, and
additions to this collection will be actively sought. Currently,
the most important of these documents are being digitized
for posting on the ILAE website. The EIC will continue to
update the database regularly. The EIC has also revamped
its service for responding to information requests, and this
will eventually be entirely online. The EIC also provides
the lists of books in print and journals for the website.
Also in the pipeline is the possibility of arranging storage
of the ILAE archive at the EIC in Zurich. The day-to-day
activities of the EIC at the Zurich end are overseen by Ian
Mothersill, who has worked tirelessly in a voluntary capacity
on this project supported by Ms. Haagii.
Simon Shorvon
Information Officer
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