Chapter Name: Swedish Epilepsy Society
Report By: Ulla Lindbom, president

Publications:

Preliminary presentation of National Guidelines for epilepsy May 2018

Summary of Activities:

Since the constitution 1986, the Swedish Epilepsy Society holds annual meetings every November. In 2017 the meeting took place in Linköping and in 2018, in Lund.

Chapter meetings: We will continue to offer annual courses och and workshops to increase knowledge about epilepsy as well as work for accessible up dates on epileptology. In addition we will promote research and development of epileptology in Sweden; the current work on National Guidelines for equal and adequate care of patients with epilepsy is our priority. Spread and further development of the Epilepsy register is another important field.

• A workshop was held in February 2017 with the title ”Childhood epilepsies, effects on language, cognition and behaviour”.
• In May 2017 a workshop was held on the theme “ Epilepsy healthcare at a distance”.
• The Annual Meeting November 2017 focused on ”Cognition och behavior problems in patients with epilepsi”.
• In Janury 2018, a workshop was arranged titled: ” Workshop on using MEG in pre-surgical evaluation of epilepsy patients”.
• The Annual Meeting November 2018 focused on “National Guidelines for Epilepsy”

Educational Activities:

• A national epilepsy register for children was completed and implementation started during 2016. The epilepsy register for adults started in 2014 and the implementation for expanded use among colleagues over the country is ongoing, but the progress is slow.
• We offer an annual educational course for neurology residency training as well as update on epileptology for colleagues in neurology in collaboration with the Swedish Neurological Society, since 2015.
• We offered educational courses for physicians and nurses in epileptology.

In 2016 the process of conducting National Guidelines for epilepsy started at the request of the Swedish Government and the work has been completed during 2017 och 2018. The guidelines are planned to be published February 2019 and applies to both adults and children.

The Society established clinical advices for professionals regarding epilepsy care to adults in 2014 and similar documents have been completed for children with epilepsy, during 2016.

The Swedish Epilepsy society has awarded scholarships to several members to improve and facilitate the advancement of epileptology within the Swedish medical community.

During 2018 the work with updating the Guidelines for drug treatment of epilepsi from 2011, have been in progress and will be published during spring 2019.

Activities in Conjunction with Local IBE Affiliates:

• Representatives from the local IBE have been active in taking part in the development of the National Guidelines for epilepsy as well as the in the continuous work to spread the use of the Epilepsy register.
• Media contacts and press releases.
• Local joint activities in different cities on the International Epilepsy day.

Challenges:

Implementation of the National Guidelines for equal and adequate care of patients with epilepsy is the priority for the Swedish Chapter in the next few years. To be able to follow the compliance with the guidelines we need indicators that can give continuous information. The epilepsy registry is an excellent tool for this purpose but the coverage over the country is far from adequate and we need to develop IT technology to facilitate the use of the epilepsy registry.

Future Plans:

We will continue to offer annual courses och and workshops to increase knowledge about epilepsy as well as work for accessible up dates on epileptology. In addition we will promote research and development of epileptology in Sweden. The current work to introduce the National Guidelines for equal and adequate care of patients with epilepsy is our priority. Spread and further development of the Epilepsy register is another important field. During 2019 the updated guidelines for AEDs will be published och the Annual Meeting 2019 will have these guidelines in focus.

Officer Election Date: November 15, 2018