BACKGROUND
4/5 people with epilepsy live in lower and middle income countries (LAMICs). The high prevalence in LAMICs often reflects the triple burden of communicable, noncommunicable, and traumatic disorders.
90% of epilepsy patients in developed countries receive adequate medical care, while this proportion is less than 10% in some parts of South America and sub-Saharan Africa.
High stigma against people with epilepsy leads to poorer medical treatment and greater daily problems.
Epilepsy is particularly underdiagnosed and under-treated in rural areas due to lack of resources, prevailing stigma, socio-economic deficiencies, and other social determinants of health.
ABOUT
We are a team of physicians, Global Health researchers, and students situated in the Department of Epileptology and at the Section Global Health at the University Hospital in Bonn.
We are designing and conducting, for example, ethnographic and other social sciences, epidemiological and clinical research that will shed light on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of epilepsy in lower and middle income countries (LAMICs). Additionally, we investigate the use of eHealth (from telemedicine to tools based on Artificial Intelligence) to reduce the burden of epilepsy in the most sustainable manner possible.
Our research will help create the evidence needed for public and private actors in national and international institutions and non-governmental organizations to take action in the field of Global Epileptology.