A survey of neurologists' views on epilepsy surgery and medically refractory epilepsy.

There is a 20-year delay between the diagnosis of epilepsy and surgical treatment. The aim of this study was to describe the different views held by neurologists regarding refractory epilepsy that may contribute to the delay in referring patients for epilepsy surgery. Neurologists in Michigan were mailed a 10-item survey inquiring about their definition of medically refractory epilepsy and their decision-making process in referring patients for epilepsy surgery.

Invited article: Neurology education research.

Background: There is a need to rigorously study the neurologic education of medical students, neurology residents, and neurologists to determine the effectiveness of our educational efforts.

Methods: We review the status of neurologic education research as it pertains to the groups of interest.

Results: We identify opportunities and impediments for education research.

Neurology resident learning in an end-of-life/palliative care course.

Objectives: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires neurology residents receive instruction in End-of-Life Care/Palliative Care (EOLPC), but survey data from 24 neurology programs in the National Residency End-of-Life Physician Education Project (NRELEP) demonstrated faculty and residents tend to rate themselves as able to perform EOLPC despite significant knowledge gaps. We participated in the NRELEP to develop an EOLPC course and assess resident learning following this new curriculum.

Methods: Fifteen residents and 8 nonparticipant faculty completed a content validated knowledge pretest and precourse EOLPC confidence self-assessment tool.

Initiation of an effective neurology resident ethics curriculum.

The authors' neurology residency program used a case-based curriculum developed by the American Academy of Neurology's Ethics, Law and Humanities Committee to provide a resident education course in ethics. A pretest and post-test were developed and administered. A survey was completed at the end of the course to evaluate resident satisfaction.

Quality estimation of subdurally recorded, event-related potentials based on signal-to-noise ratio.

Our goal is to develop a direct brain interface (DBI) that will provide communication and environmental control to persons who are "locked-in" (or nearly so) as a consequence of brainstem stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or other etiologies. Previously we demonstrated that templates constructed from trigger averaged event-related potentials (ERPs) can be cross-correlated with ongoing electrocorticograms (ECoGs) to detect ERPs associated with the performance of simple motor actions. However, it was difficult to predict a priori which of many candidate ECoG recording site(s) could provide signals that would provide adequate motor action detection.