Abu Dhabi will host the Second Annual UAE Epilepsy Congress (26–27 April 2013). The congress is hosted under the umbrella of the Emirates League Against Epilepsy (ELAE), and endorsed by the Abu Dhabi Health Services Co (SEHA), the Commission of Eastern Mediterranean Affairs (CEMA) and the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). The congress is accredited by the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi (HAAD).
The congress has been organized, according to a release, as part of ongoing efforts to provide education to healthcare professionals and to enhance the overall healthcare standards in the fight against Epilepsy in the region. With the participation of renowned international and regional faculty, the two-day comprehensive program will present cutting edge topics in clinical epileptology. This year’s key note speaker at the congress will be Emilio Perucca, the president-elect of ILAE.
This year’s plenary sessions will address a broad range of topics covering: challenges in epilepsy diagnosis, tactics of AED management, medical causes of epilepsies, childhood epilepsy and intractable epilepsy. Furthermore, debate sessions are organised to raise engaging and controversial topics that are facing clinicians in the fields of epileptology in a forum that is intended to enhance healthcare professional’s knowledge about epilepsy. “Our goal is to provide insight and strategies to enhance the quality of life for people with epilepsy,” said Taoufik Alsaadi, conference chairman and president of the UAE chapter of the ILAE, and head the Neurology department at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) in Abu Dhabi.
Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which a person has repeated seizures over time through episodes of disturbed brain activity that are due to abnormal electrical discharges on the brain’s nerve cells. Epileptic brain activity causes changes in attention or behavior while symptoms vary from person to person. “Epilepsy is not a single entity but a family of more than 40 syndromes and believed to be the most common serious neurological condition that affects more than 120,000 people in the UAE”, added Alsaadi.
The Second Annual UAE Epilepsy Congress will take place at the Eastern Mangroves Hotel in Abu Dhabi and is expected to attract healthcare professionals from all over the region. “I trust that the latest advancements and cutting edge research in the field that will be presented at the congress will shed more light on this disorder and will provide a high quality of educational and networking opportunities that aim at tackling epilepsy in several domains,” concluded Alsaadi.
