Testimonies submitted for the Institute of Medicine report: epilepsy across the spectrum: promoting health and understanding

Abstract

The 2012 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Epilepsy Across the Spectrum: Promoting Health and Understanding, provides a vision for moving the field forward to improve the lives of people with epilepsy. The committee made 13 recommendations and identified a number of research priorities to promote accomplishing this vision. Its work was enriched by the contributions of many individuals who testified before the committee during its two public workshops and who submitted written testimony throughout the study process. Many of these testimonies included in this article were presented in-person at the committee's public workshops in Los Angeles, CA on March 21, 2011 and in Washington, DC on June 28-29, 2011. Among those providing testimony were people with epilepsy, their family members, health care professionals, and researchers specializing in epilepsy. The 36 testimonies that comprise this publication provided the committee with a more complete and current picture of epilepsy-related health care issues and the challenges that epilepsy imposes on the lives of people with epilepsy and their families.