15th Asian & Oceanian Epilepsy Congress

Expanding Horizons in Epilepsy Care

The 15th Asian & Oceanian Epilepsy Congress (AOEC) took place from 20 - 23 February 2025 at the Leela Ambience Convention Hotel in New Delhi, India, with the congress taking most of the accommodation and all of the session rooms in the hotel resulting in a terrific atmosphere throughout the Congress.

The congress brought together 550 participants from around the world, offering a platform for the exchange of knowledge and insights on epilepsy care. Thirty-seven countries were represented at the Congress; this included delegates from India, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, USA, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong SAR China, China, Sri Lanka, Russia, United Kingdom, Indonesia, New Zealand and Republic of Korea.

The Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC) was led by two co-chairs: John Dunne, Australia (representing ILAE) and Man Mohan Mehndiratta, India (representing IBE); in addition, ILAE and IBE appointed 12 members from the region to make up the SOC.

The theme of the scientific programme was "Expanding Horizons in Epilepsy Care", highlighting the latest advancements, challenges, and opportunities in the field. Over the course of the four-day congress, a total of 54 sessions took place, covering a diverse range of topics and formats. These included three (free) ASEPA workshops, six ASEPA didactic lectures, five platform sessions, 184 poster boards, a half-day nursing symposium, dedicated YES sessions and lively debates and video sessions.

The 15th AOEC featured 100 distinguished regional and international speakers and chairpersons, all contributing their expertise to shape the scientific programme.

The Asian Epilepsy Academy (ASEPA) and its chair, Derrick Chan, Singapore, delivered highly effective and practical programmes that complemented the scientific agenda. The programme featured three complimentary ASEPA pre-congress workshops on Thursday morning, topics included dietary therapies, a practical guide to diagnosis and management and a YES-ASEPA career development workshop. There were some technical issues with screens in the room at the start, but the experienced speakers and chairpersons effectively managed the situation until it was resolved by the AV team.

The CAOA awarded 26 bursaries to young investigators on the basis of high-quality abstracts, they also offered 12 delegates from New Delhi registration support.

The Tadokoro Prize, a tradition of the AOEC, was endowed to the two best poster and two best platform presentations during the Awards Ceremony on the last day of the Congress.

LivaNova and Jazz Pharmaceuticals were the primary sponsors for the 15th AOEC and other companies that participated were Alcis, Besa, Cadwell, Compumedics, Eisai, Indian Surgical Solutions, Intas, Natus, Nihon Kohden, Sun Pharma and Torrent Pharma.

The 15th AOEC opened with the Chairmen’s symposium entitled “Inflammation, epileptogenesis and epilepsy”, providing insight into the spectrum of autoimmune seizures, dissecting the inflammatory mechanisms of drug resistant epilepsy pathologies and immune therapeutics in epilepsy.

It was a great privilege to have Ingrid Scheffer, Australia, deliver the Masakazu Seino Memorial Lecture titled “Epilepsy genetics: where new discoveries could transform the future”.

The first day concluded with the Welcome Ceremony, featuring speeches from ILAE’s President J Helen Cross (UK), IBE’s Management Committee Graeme Shears (Australia), and the Congress co-chairs.

There was an in-memoriam tribute to members of the region who sadly passed away recently, they were Sanjeev V Thomas (India), Hasan Aziz (Pakistan), Charcrin Nabangchang (Thailand) and Shankar Malakar (Nepal), this was followed by 1 minute of silence.

The Asian and Oceanian Outstanding Award in Epilepsy was presented to Bindu Menon (India), Masako Watanabe (Japan), Heung Dong Kim (Republic of Korea), Hemav Rajbhandari (Nepal) and Ong Hian Tat (Singapore) accompanied by informative summaries of their achievement highlighting their dedication and contribution to the region and they were presented with a plaque and a pen. In addition, through the Golden Light Awards, IBE honoured five young people from the region who constantly strive to improve the lives of those living with epilepsy.

A traditional Indian dance performance followed the ceremony, and the Welcome Reception took place in the hotel courtyard. Participants had a wonderful time reconnecting with old friends, making new ones, and enjoying a variety of local food and drinks.

Six ASEPA Didactic Lectures opened the programme on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning of the congress, followed by a highly topical main session, which was a great start to the congress on each day.

Then four parallel sessions covered all epilepsy genres. The afternoon featured an array of sessions including debates and video sessions as well as the Congress platform session and delegates were encouraged to visit the in-person physical posters during the lunchbreak.

On Saturday afternoon there was a Nursing symposium titled “Advancing epilepsy care and empowering nursing initiatives” and the YES Section assisted to arrange three sessions in the congress along with the “Yes Data Blitz” and “YES Brainstorming and discussion: Expert approaches to management of patients with epilepsy – masterclass and lightning talks”. There was also a seated Yoga and mindfulness in epilepsy on Saturday.

The final day of the congress featured a comprehensive schedule of scientific sessions, including two ASEPA lectures, a main session, a video session, a presentation on new epilepsy surgery technologies, as well as the Tadokoro Awards and closing speeches.

The majority of those who attended the congress enjoyed themselves and some feedback from the survey included remarks like:

“Loved it, met lots of new people and connected with like-minded people and learned from their experience. Would love to attend more of these congresses”

“Amazingly organised! Loved being a part of this. Looking forward to more such opportunities”

“It was excellent”

“Looking forward to more of these conferences”

“Thanks to all the organizing committee for a successful congress”

“It was overall very useful”

Of the attendees, 94% said the congress met their expectations. 43% of attendees were aged between 30 and 40. More than 80% of delegates were from South East Asia, while more than 40% thought the programme was adequately covered, 14% said they would like to see more mentoring and fellowship programmes and 12% said they would like to see more teaching courses and career development sessions.

The regional committees of ILAE and IBE look forward to building on the success of the 15th AOEC at the 16th AOEC which will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in November 2026.

Challenges:

While the congress was a success in many ways, there were challenges encountered along the way and attendance numbers fell below expectations.

Visas
One reason for this was the visa process, this was not only lengthy and complex but was further complicated when government ministries altered procedures mid-way through the application process. This disruption caused delays, confusion, and frustration among international attendees and limiting participation from some regions such as Pakistan, China, Hong Kong SAR China and Taiwan.

Suppliers
Another notable concern was the lack of transparency in dealings with the hotel and AV company who had since signing the contract, partnered together. Unexpected hidden charges and price hikes from both the hotel and the AV company caused unforeseen budgetary challenges and strained the overall financial planning of the event.

Finance
Another challenge faced was getting money in and out of India, because of this we had to partner with Neumech events, and they facilitated some of the industry/sponsorship payments. These funds could then be used to pay the hotel/AV company.

Awards winners

See the awardees from the 15th AOEC:

• Asian and Oceanian Outstanding Achievement Epilepsy Award
• Tadokoro Award

 

 

SCIENTIFIC & ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Co-Chairs		Members:
John Dunne (Australia)	Man Mohan Mehndiratta (India)	Ajay Asranna (India) Ed Bertram (USA) Derrick Chan (Singapore) Sarat Chandra (India) Anchor Hung (Hong Kong SAR) Kensuke Kawai (Japan) Shang-Yeong Kwan (Taiwan) Howan Leung (Hong Kong SAR) Kheng Seang Lim (Malaysia) Muzharul Mannan (Bangladesh) Zarine Mogal (Pakistan) Manjari Tripathi (India)

The Scientific & Organising Committee would like to thank Jill Bicknell-Royle (Australia) and Chien Chen (Taiwan) as a 3rd party multidisciplinary group on their contribution to the AOEC programme in the field of nursing and ASEPA.

Please check here regularly as we continue to provide updates and relevant information about the congress. If you have any queries, please contact aoec@epilepsycongress.org.

 

Jazz Pharmaceuticals has sponsored this meeting via a financial contribution only.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals has had no involvement in the content or in any other aspect of this meeting.