Chapter Name: Swedish Epilepsy Society
Report By: Heléne Sundelin, president

Publications:

Chapter website: www.epilepsisallskapet.se

Summary of Activities:

Since the constitution 1986, the Swedish Epilepsy Society holds annual meetings every November. Due to the covid-19 pandemic the meeting was held online with an adjacent course for the members and other professionals working with epilepsy. The theme was Social and psychological consequences of epilepsy.

During 2020 we had, due to the pandemic, to cancel planned workshops and many of the members have been increasingly busy in direct patient related health care.

We will continue to offer annual courses and workshops to increase knowledge about epilepsy. There is also a collaboration with the Swedish Epilepsy Association. In addition, we promote research with travel scholarships as well support the development of guidelines and support the national epilepsy registers. We are the health professions’ advocates for epilepsy issues regarding equal and adequate care of patients with epilepsy.

The national epilepsy register for children, BEpQ, was completed and implementation started during 2016. In BEpQ today, more than 20% of all children with epilepsy are registered. The epilepsy register for adults started in 2014 and the implementation is ongoing, but the progress is at the moment slow.

Challenges:

Implementation of the National Guidelines for equal and adequate care of patients with epilepsy is still the priority for the Swedish Chapter. To be able to follow the compliance with the guidelines we have started the development of indicators foremost in the two epilepsy registers to gather continuous information.

Future Plans:

We will continue to offer annual courses and workshops to increase knowledge about epilepsy as well as work for accessible updates 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 develop the Epilepsy registers is another important field.

Officer Election Date: November 11, 2021