Understanding Childhood Epilepsy

With nearly three decades of experience in pediatric medicine, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva works at Nicklaus Children’s Health System in Miami, Florida as senior vice president and chief clinical officer. In his previous role, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva served as the associate executive director for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), where he worked on several important projects, including as project director for a study titled ‘Awareness and Access to Care for Children and Youth with Epilepsy.’

Childhood epilepsy is the single most common brain disorder in the United States, with more than three million diagnosed with this condition. Almost two-thirds of children diagnosed with epilepsy will eventually outgrow their seizures upon reaching their teenage years. Despite this, it is still essential that parents monitor their child’s health, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and taking their child in for regular doctor’s visits.

Though each child will experience epilepsy differently, improvements in treatment options have made it so that most can manage seizures effectively by using anti-seizure medications. Even for those who still experience seizures even while taking medications, there are alternative treatment options available that can be effective. In these cases, dietary treatment options (following a ketogenic diet), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), or brain surgery may be alternative considerations.

Even in children that do not only have one seizure or don not quickly outgrow their seizures and need treatment with medication, but the long-term effects also are typically small and do not warrant too much worry.

Awareness and Access to Care for Children and Youth with Epilepsy

 

Awareness and Access to Care for Children and Youth with Epilepsy
Image: nichq.org

An experienced public health professional and senior medical administrator, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva functions as the associate executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. As part of his work with the AAP, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva has served as the project director and a principal investigator for the Awareness and Access to Care for Children and Youth with Epilepsy project.

Conducted in partnership with the Epilepsy Foundation, the Awareness and Access to Care for Children and Youth with Epilepsy project was undertaken with financial support from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration. From 2004 to 2008, the project worked to improve access to comprehensive and coordinated pediatric epilepsy health care services in underserved areas of California, Illinois, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oregon, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

Part of the project’s mission was to apply the advancements of the adult epilepsy Project ECHO within the pediatric setting. Short for Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes, ECHO was developed to treat chronic and complex cases of epilepsy in various rural and underserved populations of New Mexico.