13th European Congress on Epileptology

2018 ECE in Vienna

Messe Wien Congress Center in Vienna, Austria

26 - 30 August 2018

Report from the Congress Chairs

Program co-chairs Meir Bialer and Eugen Trinka — Program co-chairs Eugen Trinka and Meir Bialer are ready to welcome delegates

The European Congress on Epileptology, a staple in the calendars of epileptologists and neurologists across Europe and the world, has a well-deserved high reputation for scientific and educational excellence. Over 2,500 participants experienced the 104 state-of-the-art and highly educational sessions at the 13th ECE, which included the Chairs’ Symposium, Main Sessions, Special Sessions, Parallel Sessions, a Debate, interactive ECE Forums and Platform Sessions. The educational programme featured Advanced Teaching Sessions, as well as innovative, first-class Teaching Courses. The International Scientific and Organising Committee, co-chaired by Meir Bialer and Eugen Trinka, created a programme with both scientific depth and clinical practical application and covering all aspects of epileptology. Four main themes were selected, representing Adult Epileptology, Basic and Translational Science, Childhood Epileptology and Pharmacotherapy, and each had an associated Main Session. The extremely popular Chairs’ Symposium ‘Recent advances and treatments in status epilepticus’ followed a prestigious special lecture ‘Cannabinoids going back and ahead’ given by the forefather of cannabinoids research, Raphael Mechoulam (Israel), for which the plenary hall had a “full house”. At the end of the scientific programme, the Topic Chairs presented the best of their topics and summarised the essential take-home messages at the Congress Highlights session.

There were some additional special sessions at the congress, such as the ‘Herbert Reisner Prize Session – the Scientific Session of the Austrian Society of Epileptology’ and the ESBACE sessions during which the European Study on the Burden and Care of Epilepsy presented its findings and results. The ‘Social Care Forum: Facilitating self-management in epilepsy’ and the ‘Patienten-Forum: “Epilepsie – aktiv leben” – Anfälle erkennen, beraten und behandeln’ placed the focus firmly on the social aspects of epilepsy.

Congress Proceedings Epilepsia, Volume 59, Issue S3

Awards

The Welcome Ceremony was another highlight of the congress, during which the ILAE-Europe awards were presented.

Awards video

European Epileptology Award 2018: Emilio Perucca (Italy) video interview
European Epilepsy Education Award 2018: Kristina Malmgren (Sweden) video interview
European Epilepsy Service Award 2018: Finola Quinn (Ireland)
Young Investigator Award 2018: Birgit Frauscher (Austria/Canada)
Young Investigator Award 2018: Sylvain Rheims (France) video interview

The Ceremony ended with an entertaining performance by a pianist, accompanied by a baritone, both of whom are doctors in the Medical University of Vienna, and was followed by an animated Welcome Reception, providing an ideal networking opportunity for participating delegates.

Emilio Perucca, winner of the European Epileptology Award, as well as the two winners of the Young Investigator Awards, Birgit Frauscher and Sylvain Rheims, presented their work at the Symposium of Excellence in Epileptology. At this Symposium, the ILAE Journal Awards were also bestowed and the awardees presented their winning research:

Epileptic Disorders Educational Prize 2017: Rohit Shankar (United Kingdom)
Epilepsia Open Prize for Clinical Research 2018: Carla Bentes (Portugal)

Young Epilepsy Section (YES)

The newly-launched ILAE Young Epilepsy Section (ILAE-YES) was extremely active during the ECE, holding several events for the younger generation interested in the field of epilepsy. The Fun Run through the Prater attracted many more participants than expected and the Networking Event was an unqualified success. The ILAE-YES sessions and meetings were also well-attended, indicating a great enthusiasm for involvement in epilepsy and the ILAE.

Several other initiatives also promoted the fostering of future leaders in the ILAE and epileptology. The successful ILAE Mentor-Mentee programme for trainees, which was first initiated at the IEC in 2017, was continued at the congress. The 20 participating trainees were paired with a mentor, with whom they met several times during the congress. The ILAE Leadership Development Programme has been run twice at the international congress and for the first time was held at the ECE, with sessions tailored to meet with the needs of future European leaders. It is a unique opportunity to receive leadership training and network with leaders from around the globe. Twenty seven future leaders from Europe, Asia and South America were selected for the two-day programme at the ECE that included lectures and interactive workshops.

Finally, the city of Vienna (recently ranked as the number one liveable city in the world), in the heart of Europe, where so many of the most important ideas and paradigms for modern society were created at the beginning of the last century, provided the perfect meeting point for participants from east and west.

Meir Bialer & Eugen Trinka
Co-chairs, International Scientific and Organising Committee
13th ECE 2018

Neonatal Seizure Guideline Task Force

The taskforce organized a workshop at the 2018 European Epilepsy Congress, bringing together pediatricans, epileptologists and neonatologists. View report, slides and photos

Satellite Symposia

ESTM 2018 Vienna: Epilepsy Surgery Techniques

YES Events During the 13th European Congress on Epileptology

Neonatal Seizure Guidelines

Congress Videos

Welcome Delegates

Co-Chairs, Eugen Trinka and Meir Bialer welcome delegates to the 13th European Congress on Epileptology in Vienna. Five very busy days ahead of science, education and networking. Watch Video