National Strategies on Bridging Gaps and Health Equity in Epilepsy Care

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Abstract
Because there are many effective treatments for epileptic seizures, there is a great need for optimal diagnostic and treatment pathways. We present national strategies to address gaps and health equity in patients with epileptic seizures, focusing on efforts in China and the USA. We outline the delay in diagnosis and treatment caused by the “treatment gap.” Efforts in China to address the “treatment gap” include the National Rural Epilepsy Management Project, the establishment of the national epilepsy quality control system, and standardized tertiary epilepsy center development. In the USA, Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) epilepsy enables specialists to partner with primary care clinicians to deliver care. The National Association of Epilepsy Centers facilitates care and contributes to the standardization of presurgical epilepsy evaluation. A major recent and ongoing development is the Epilepsy National Plan in the USA, coordinated through the American Epilepsy Society (AES) with 120 epilepsy-related organizations, to advance a comprehensive national plan that reflects the needs of the entire epilepsy community.

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