AI model may help epilepsy patients become seizure-free

A study led by Monash University and believed to be a world first has demonstrated that an Artificial Intelligence (AI) model can potentially predict the best personalized, anti-seizure medication for patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy. The predictive model, once fully developed, would spare these patients the uncertainty of not knowing when their lives would be returned to normal by taking anti-seizure medications, and possibly the harmful side-effects associated with some drugs. Professor Patrick Kwan, a neurologist and researcher from the Monash Central Clinical School's Department of Neuroscience is leading an international collaboration that is "training" the deep-learning prediction model (deep learning is a type of machine learning). Their study is published in the influential JAMA Neurology. Epilepsy affects 70 million people worldwide. Currently, choosing anti-seizure drugs for a patient is a process of trial and error with clinicians unable to predict which drug a particular patient will respond to, Professor Kwan said.