The role of epilepsy centers in delivering care to patients with intractable epilepsy.

Abstract

Epilepsy is a disorder that can profoundly influence people's ability to participate fully in society. To ameliorate the effects of the disorder, the health care system should provide mechanisms that explicitly facilitate consultations among primary-, secondary-, and tertiary-level health care providers. Second, it should develop schedules for compensating for both the less and the more technologically intensive methods of diagnosis and treatment. These should allow improved or complete seizure control in a significant portion of patients with intractable seizures. Although there are costs for such changes, the costs of not making them may be higher.