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Aims
1. To provide and promote epilepsy education and research with excellence, quality, efficient and humanistic approach for medical and non-medical professionals in Latin America
2. To coordinate academic activities among the ILAE Latin America Region chapters
3. To improve the health care of people with epilepsy in Latin America
Commission Activities from June 1, 2007 to August 31, 2008
ILAE Commission on Latin America Affairs members: Marcelo Devilat (Secretary), Salvador Gonzalez Pal (Treasurer), Patricia Campos, Elza Yacubian, Alejandro Scaramelli, Henry Stokes, Marco T. Medina (Chair)
1. Latin American Epilepsy Academy (Academia Latino Americana de Epilepsia ALADE)
- ALADE Executive Committee: On 8 February 2008 during the Second Latin American Summer School on Epilepsy (LASSE II) in Sao Paulo, Brazil the Latin America Epilepsy Academy (ALADE) executive committee was elected by the ILAE Commission on Latin American Affairs. The members of the ALADE Executive Committee are: Elza Yacubian, Patricia Campos, Silvia Kochen, Francisco Rubio Donnadieu, Alejandro Scaramelli, Esper Cavalheiro (Secretary) and Marco T Medina (Chair).They will serve from 2008 to 2011.
- ALADE Legal Status: In February 2008, Dr Esper Cavalheiro , Dr Marco T Medina and Dr Elza Yacubian signed the ALADE legal status document in Sao Paulo. ALADE will have a permanent address in Sao Paulo Brazil as a non-profit organization, an educational arm of the ILAE Commission on Latin American Affairs
- ALADE Inaugural Educational Activities: During the 5th Latin American Epilepsy Congress in Montevideo, Uruguay 5 – 8 November 2008, ALADE will inaugurate the Educational Activities. We will have the following educational courses: 1) Neurobiology (Coordinator: Rafael Gutierrez), 2) Epilepsy Surgery (Coordinators: Americo Sakamoto and Manuel Campos), 3) Fundamentals in Electroencephalography (Coordinator: Salomon L. Moshe), 4) Video-EEG in Children and Adults (Coordinator: Hans Luders) and 5) Clinical Trials: design and review (Coordinator: Samuel Wiebe).
2. Second LASSE – LATIN AMERICAN SUMMER SCHOOL ON EPILEPSY
Increasing knowledge and decreasing treatment gap
Santa Monica Hotel and Convention Center in Guarulhos, São Paulo, Brazil, from 7-17 February 2008
Director: Esper A. Cavalheiro The Second Latin American Summer School on Epilepsy was again a major success. The atmosphere was excellent and students were delighted with the experience. The factors that contributed to LASSE success were: (a) the hotel location; (b) teacher's dedication, commitment and generosity; (c) the program that covered different aspects of basic and clinical epileptology allowing a closer interaction of students from these two areas and (d) the open discussion with contributions of all teachers present at the conference room.
3. Epilepsia en Español
Editor Natalio Fejerman
This important activity was started three years ago. During 2008 year the distribution of Epilepsia en Español has been improved significantly and, according to the feedback received from the chapters, the Journal is being received regularly by the members of the Chapters in Latin America, including Brazil. Novartis is doing quite well in the distribution. Regarding the selected papers and the overall quality of the journal, we received favorable comments from many colleagues from the chapters of Latin America and Spain. The 2nd volume has been sponsored by the ILAE as part of the budget of the Latin-American Affairs Commission. Drs. Marco Tulio Medina and Elza Márcia Yacubian have been included as Co-Editors representing the mentioned Commission and the ILAE. At this time, we are now finishing the 3rd number of volume 2 which corresponds to the papers published in Epilepsia during the last months of 2007. We will have a meeting within the Latin American Commission in Montevideo (November 2008) to try to find new ways to keep the journal running.
4. Latin American Epilepsy Surgery Subcommittee
The ILAE Commission on Latin American Affairs with the approval of the ILAE President, Dr Peter Wolf appointed a new Latin American Epilepsy Surgery subcommittee. The members of this subcommittee are: Americo Sakamoto (Chair), Dr Manuel Campos (Secretary), Dr Mario Alonso, Dr Jaime Fandiño, Dr Juan Bulacio and a member from Central America (Costa Rica)
The term of this subcommittee will be same of the ILAE Commission on Latin American Affairs. The main goals of this subcommittee will be to improve the Epilepsy Surgery gap in Latin America and to promote the education and research on Epilepsy Surgery, working in close contact with the Latin American Academy of Epilepsy (ALADE). This subcommittee will work also with other ILAE Commissions: Therapeutics (Dr Gary Mathern), North America (Dr. Samuel Wiebe) and Epilepsy Care, mainly on the Epilepsy Surgery gap project.
5. Education Project with The ILAE North American Commission (joint report from the North American and Latin American Commissions)
Members: Sheryl Haut (Leader), Jean Gotman, Nizam Ahmed, Juan Ochoa, Jose Cavazos, Marco T Medina (Latin American Commission), Elza Yakubian (Education Commission). The North American and the Latin American Commissions of the ILAE have joined forces in their commitment to improve the quality of Epilepsy care in Latin America. The primary vehicle used is improvement in the transfer of knowledge.
Status of the 2008 Visiting Professorships ( based on the reports from Dr Jose Cavazos, Dr Marco T Medina and Latin American ILAE Chapters):
a) Jorge Burneo, M.D. - University of Western Ontario
Dr Burneo gave an epilepsy educational course in Lima, Peru in close coordination with Dr Lizardo Mija and Dr Patricia Campos. A Neurocysticercosis workshop took place in Tumbes, Peru, with the participation of Dr. Hector Hugo Garcia, Theodore Nash, Marco T Medina, Antonio Delgado Escueta, Gustavo Roman, among others. Excellent results according with Dr. Lizardo Mija and Dr. Hector Hugo Garcia
b) Greg Krauss, M.D. - John Hopkins University
Went to Panama and have several educational courses in coordination with the ILAE Panamanian Chapter. Excellent results according to Dr Ernesto Triana.
c) David Labiner, M.D. - University of Arizona
He partnered with neurologists in Costa Rica (Dr Alexander Parajeles as local Coordinator), and plans to establish teleconferencing later this year. He plans to return next year. Excellent report according to Dr Parajeles.
d) Patricio S. Espinoza, M.D. - Brigham & Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School
He participated in a Neurological Update program (IV Seminario Internacional de Neurosciencias) in Quito, Ecuador at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito on April 1st-3rd, 2008. He also performed a teleconference with 6 sites from different regions within Ecuador
e) Dr Jose Cavazos - University of Texas Health Science Center
The visit is scheduled for November 20-27, 2008 for the Hospital Infantil de Mexico, which is the main pediatric hospital in Mexico City There is an epilepsy program there and we are establishing a partnership between our Epilepsy Centers. My visit is scheduled for November 20-27, 2008.
Funds for the Visiting Professorships from 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 have been received and are in an account at the AES. Overall, the programs have been very successful. Dr Jose Cavazos will present a report at the AES International Affairs committee in Dec. 2008 and at the NA task force meeting.
6. Island of Hispaniola Project ( report from Lionel Carmant) Members: Lionel Carmant (leader, Canada), Marco Medina (Latin American Commission), Diogenes Santos-Villorio (Dominican Republic), Michel Baldy Mouliner (EUREPA), Alex Elie (Haiti), and Dr. Marcel Severe (Haiti). On 4 June 2008, la Clinique d’épilepsie de Port-Au-Prince was up and running. Haiti and the Dominican Republic constitute the Island of Hispaniola. But unlike the Dominican Chapter, which is well structured, Haiti had no neurologist, no trained electro-encephalographers, and it only had access to two conventional EEG machines (one of which is 8-channels), to serve a population of 8 million., Recordings were reviewed outside of the country.
The Task Force is chaired by Lionel Carmant, Past President of the Canadian chapter, and include Diogenes Santos Viloria, President of the Dominican chapter, Alix Elie, a neurosurgeon from Haiti who follows most of the patients with epilepsy, Marco Tulio Medina, President of the Latin American Commission and Michel Baldy Moulinier, Past President of the French League who had agreed to share with us his experience in the African Region.
The Task Force rapidly identified the most significant needs of the Island. First we needed to help provide access to proper epilepsy care to the Haitian population. Second, help was needed to eradicate neurocysticercosis from the Island of Hispaniola. Finally we could support the development of an Epilepsy Surgery program. To reach these objectives, we enriched the Task Force by inviting collaboration from three additional individuals, Dr. Marcel Sévère, a young Haitian pediatrician eager to learn how to interpret EEGs, Dr. Hector Hugo Garcia from Peru, a world leader in neurocysticercosis epidemiological research, and Dr. Diones Rivera, a prominent Dominican Neurosurgeon leading the effort in epilepsy surgery development in Dominican Republic. Many of these activities took place in a very short time
7. Educational Activities in Congresses: Epilepsy Educational Symposium supported by the ILAE Latin American Commission during the Panamerican Neurology Congress Dominican Republic and the International Epilepsy Congress in Singapore.
During the Pan-American Neurology Congress on 7 to 13 October 2007, the Latin American Commission, the North American Commission and the Dominican Republic Chapter organized an Educational Epilepsy Course (on 10 October 2007), with the participation of: Samuel Wiebe (North America Commission, Canada) Lionel Carmant (Canadian ILAE Chapter), Henry Stokes (Latin American Commission, Guatemala), Salvador Gonzalez-Pal (Latin American Chapter, Cuba), Marco T Medina (Latin American Commission), Diogenes Santos Viloria, Jose Cabrera and Rosario Gomez (ILAE Dominican Republic Chapter), Franz Chaves-Sell (ILAE Costa Rican Chapter), Antonio V. Delgado-Escueta and Diana Kraemer (USA). The educational symposium was a success. After this symposium a Meeting on the Hispaniola project took place.
During the International Epilepsy Congress, in Singapore on 10 July 2007 the IBE and the ILAE Latin American Commission organized a successful session on: Complementary and Alternative Therapy for Epilepsy with the participation of Dr Lilia Nunez (Mexico), Alicia Bogacz (Uruguay), Franz Chaves-Sell (Costa Rica) and Marco T Medina (Honduras)
8. Global Campaign and WHO/PAHO Central American Regional Meeting Representatives from the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (Dr Victor Aparicio, Dr Jorge Rodriguez, Dr. Jose Bertolote), ILAE (Dr Marco T Medina, Henry Stokes), IBE (Dr Carlos Acevedo) and Central America, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Mexico representatives had a meeting in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on 21 – 23 August in order to promote the Epilepsy Global Campaign in the region. Dr Acevedo presented a Latin America Epilepsy Report and Dr Bertolote the Spanish translation of the Neurological Disorders: Public Health Challenges book. During this meeting a demonstrative pilot project was proposed in Honduras and a Regional Consensus on Epilepsy was achieved
9. Other Activities of The CommissionThe V Latin American Congress on Epilepsy is going to be held in Montevideo, Uruguay, 5 to 8 November, 2008. The Organizing Committee, including members from ILAE and IBE Latin American Commissions, representatives from the Executive Committees of both ILAE and IBE, the Epilepsy Care commission as well as members from the local organizing committee, have worked in a close collaboration. Several courses organized by the Latin American Academy of Epilepsy were included on the program
Accomplishments (2007)
1. Election of the ALADE executive committee, ALADE legal status accomplished and inaugural educational activities in Montevideo
2. Successful collaborative work with the North American Commission
3. Establishment of the Epilepsy Surgery Subcommittee
4. Successful LASSE II and Epilepsia en Espanol
Recommendations for Future Work
- Improving the Latin American Epilepsy Academy (ALADE) regional activities (i.e., Mesoamerica and Caribbean, Andean, etc)
- Improve the epilepsy care in Latin America (i.e., neurocysticercosis project, epilepsy surgery gap and treatment gap)
- Consolidation of LASSE and Epilepsia en Espanol
Marco T. Medina
Chair
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