Global Epilepsy Programme
Description
A seizure will affect one in twenty individuals during their lifetime, and over 50 million individuals worldwide have epilepsy. The majority, over 85%, reside in low and middle-income countries, where seizures significantly increase mortality risk.
Limited resources, scarce healthcare access, and stigma surrounding epilepsy result in less than 20% of those in need receiving anti-seizure medication in some regions. While it is challenging to swiftly augment medical care access and doctor availability in these countries, technological solutions can enable non-medical personnel to contribute significantly to patient care.
To realise this, it is essential to understand why epilepsy is not well comprehended and why misconceptions are rampant. Such knowledge can guide the creation of culturally-sensitive technologies that can significantly impact the lives of individuals.
This pioneering project assembles a multidisciplinary team, carefully chosen to develop research-informed, culturally-suitable technologies that can drastically enhance the quality of life for individuals with epilepsy worldwide.
The Oxford Martin Programme on Global Epilepsy has three goals:
- Comprehend the life experiences of individuals with epilepsy, the impact of epilepsy on communities, the nature of social stigma, and perceptions of novel healthcare technologies. This understanding will be achieved through ethnographic work and establishing local oral history projects and archives.
- Collaborate with engineers, medics, and computer programmers to prototype and implement portable high-density brainwave recording (EEG) for improved diagnostic accuracy. The prototype will address challenges specific to low and middle-income countries, including electrode interfacing, sensor design, and algorithms for swift diagnosis.
- Utilise the local knowledge gleaned from oral histories to design a suite of applications that aid healthcare workers throughout the epilepsy diagnosis, management, and follow-up pathway. These application-based teaching tools will provide epilepsy first aid and custom education platforms for individuals with epilepsy, their families, and community.
Offers funding
No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.
Contact details
Old Indian Institute Building
34 Broad Street
Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX1 3BD
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University affiliation(s)
University of Oxford
Oxford
University of Oxford
Oxford
Last modified:
2024-06-07 16:32:29