Research Projects 2021

This document outlines the new, ongoing, and competed projects during July 2020 to June 2021.

Led by the Prince of Wales’s Chair of Childhood Epilepsy, and Young Epilepsy Trustee, Professor Helen Cross OBE, our research partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital and the University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, works to 3 key Workstreams:

Workstream 1: Understanding Childhood Epilepsies

Around half of people diagnosed with epilepsy never learn the cause of it. This is concerning from both the personal and clinician perspective. The more we know about what causes epilepsy and how else the underlying cause is affecting the individual patient, the better clinicians can manage and treat, and the better the patient may understand themselves.

Workstream 2: Outstanding Treatment

Epilepsy treatments have not changed very much over recent years and the process of finding the right combination of treatments for each patient can take a long time. This is very hard on patients, and their families. Continued advancement of imaging, surgery, dietetics,genomics, targeted treatment, and new medicines is therefore crucial in the quest to effectively treat and one day perhaps cure every epilepsy.

Workstream 3: Outstanding Support

This workstream is set to tackle the wider challenges associated with growing up with epilepsy and in treating childhood epilepsies. It is important to know what epilepsy is, and how to treat it, but if the systems and supports are not in place to act on this knowledge then patients cannot benefit.