Chapter Name: Canadian League Against Epilepsy
Report By: CLAE

Publications:

CLAE Connections – our league newsletter – of which 6 were published in 2017 and 2018. This newsletter highlights our CLAE rising stars, innovative programs and services (clinical, research or advocacy), major publications from our members, information on epilepsy related meetings, success stories in major grant competitions, etc.

Summary of Activities:

Scientific and Educational Meeting

Both the 2017 and 2018 Scientific Meetings were a great success. Topics in 2017 included the following: neuropsychology of epilepsy, newer medical treatments, update on infantile spams, women and epilepsy, brainstem seizures, and more. At the 2017 conference we presented the Excellence in Research Award.

Topics in 2018 included the following: Brain on Fire: Inflammation and the Childhood Onset Epilepsies, Artificial Intelligence and Epilepsy and Post‑Traumatic Epileptogenesis: From Bench to Bed, and others. At the 2018 meeting we announced two winners of the Junior Investigator Award.

Summary of Activities in 2017 and 2018

In addition to our newsletter, we completed a major financial audit (no concerns) and funded three epilepsy fellowships awards in 2017 and one in 2018. We awarded our usual trainee/allied health awards for best publications (fellow award, grad student or medical student award, resident award and allied health student award). New in 2018, Canadian fellows were able to apply for the J. Kiffin Penry MiniFellowship Program Award, which was previously only available in the U.S.

In 2017, we held a meeting during the American Epilepsy Society ASM, where we awarded the Wilder Penfield Award, the Junior Investigator Award, and the Clinical Practice/Advocacy Award.

Concerning membership, from July 2016 to July 2017 we had 203 members, and from July 2017 to 2018 we had 193 (the 2018 to 2019 numbers are pending).

Challenges:

Nothing to report.

Future Plans:

The new President, Dang Khoa Nguyen has proposed the following activities in the next two years:

  1. Creation of a French committee to establish a policy of the place of French in CLAE activities and help in the translation of documents.
  2. Creation of a Women with epilepsy task force, notably to help increase recruitment in the North American Pregnancy Registry.
  3. Increase collaboration with North American Regional Commission with the organization of the first North American Regional Epilepsy Meeting in Toronto (2020) and the establishment of a Center-to-Center program between the Epilepsy Society of the Caribbean and the CLAE (starting with The Eric Williams Medical Sciences Hospital in Trinidad Tobago and The University of Montreal Hospital Center in Canada.
  4. Improvement on the obtainment of funding to create prizes or small grants named after outstanding CLAE members: a) Origami4epilepsy fundraiser; b) Warren Blume Scientific day and fundraising dinner; c) Marilyn and Jean Gotman Scientific day and fundraising dinner; d) Brain Canada research proposal (‘The CLAE epilepsy study’).

Officer Election Date: September 20, 2019