Chapter Name: Hong Kong
Report By: H Leung and E Fung

Publications:

Update to the Hong Kong Epilepsy Guideline: evidence-based recommendations for clinical management of women with epilepsy throughout the reproductive cycle
Chang SK et al.
Hong Kong Med J 2020 Oct;26(5):421–31

Summary of Activities:

HKES has made and disseminated the messages for epilepsy patients under the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic. The special notice was available for our website www.hkes.org throughout 2020. Dr Gardian Fong also produced a video version of the same set of messages which would be easy for patients and carers in the community to understand.

Academic Meetings

We held our first online quarterly scientific meeting on 12 June 2020. One of our neurosurgeons, Dr Tak-lap POON shared with us on the latest development of Deep Brain Stimulation in Epilepsy. The positive responses from colleagues reassured us that this format is well accepted as the ‘new normal’.

Subsequently we have held further scientific meetings:

20 Aug 2020 – Dr Richard CHANG shared the topic of “The Epilepsy Management : Landscape in Hong Kong”

2 Dec 2020 - Prof Andres M KANNER from USA talked about “Psychiatric Disorders associated with Epilepsy”.

Despite the travelling restrictions, we were honoured to have Professor Lawrence HIRSCH to participate in our Annual Scientific Meeting (26 Sep 2020). He shared his experience on NCSE in the critically–ill and roles of cEEG and qEEG with a special reference to COVID-19 and the hot topic on Seizure clusters and emerging rescue therapies, including home administration.

Dr Polly Nga-wing TSAI shared her experience in Continuous EEG in ICU setting- local experience. The meeting was a great success and we had more than 300 registrations.

We were also the co-host of the 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Hong Kong Neurological Society (14-15 Nov 2020), a biennial joint meeting which took place locally. There was an epilepsy pre-meeting workshop on 1. Case Sharing – Epilepsy management of women with child bearing age (by Prof Torbjörn TOMSON), 2. Paediatric epilepsies into Adulthood (by Dr Eva FUNG) and 3. AED Selection in patients with systemic co-morbidities (by Dr Manuel TOLEDO). The epilepsy symposium featured the topics of “How do the real world evidence of antiepileptic drugs benefit epilepsy patients?” and “Teratogenicity of antiepileptic drugs”. The honoured guest speakers were Dr Manuel TOLEDO and Prof Torbjorn TOMSON respectively.

Engagement with community

Originally we have planned for “Fun-games” on 16 Feb 2020 as an event to promote the International Epilepsy Day 2020. The activities were cancelled because of the outbreak. We then switched to an online quiz. We have also published a picture book on the story of a service dog and a child with epilepsy, hoping to let the public have a glimpse of the daily life of epilepsy patients (ISBN 978-988-74448-0-0). The books were distributed to local schools, public libraries, and training centres, etc.

World health organization

HKES prepared and submitted a letter on 23 Sep 2020 to The secretary of Food and health bureau Prof S Chan in response to the plea from WHO regarding the motion of Towards the 73rd World Health Assembly Resolution – ‘Global Action on Epilepsy and its Synergies with Other Neurological Disorders’. We are glad to learn that the motion was passed. HKES will continue to work along this direction for the betterment of epilepsy patients in the future.

Challenges:

2020 is a special year with unprecedented circumstances. Nobody would have expected the extent and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet the challenges of this outbreak have given us opportunities and time to re-prioritize and rethink our services to the professional sector, patients and carers in the community as a whole.

Future Plans:

We will build on the recent publication by Richard Chang and hopefully hold more academic discussions on the topic of women and epilepsy. Moreover, we shall work closely with the new chair of CAOA Dr John Dunne to have more EEG and academic teachings in HK in 2021, hopefully with innovative methods such as on-line platform and provision of examinations via remote technology.

Officer Election Date: 2 March 2021