Statistician receives award to develop tool to predict epileptic seizures
Dr Laura Bonnett has been awarded a Springboard Fellowship from the Academy of Medical Sciences to create an online tool to forecast epileptic seizures.
Springboard Fellowships support biomedical researchers at the start of their independent post to help launch their research careers. This includes funding of up to £100,000 over two years and access the Academy’s mentoring and career development programme.
Laura is a Medical Statistician whose work focusses on the development and validation of clinical prediction models for people with recurrent conditions such as epilepsy and asthma. Epilepsy is a common neurological condition typified by recurrent seizures. It is treated with antiseizure medication but deciding when and how to treat people with seizures is challenging.
Prediction models combine multiple pieces of patient information to predict a clinical outcome. Despite many epilepsy models being published each year, most have limitations that mean they fail to progress into clinical practice. Existing models can be difficult for clinicians and patients to understand and they require complex calculations which cannot be undertaken during consultations.
Using data from the two largest ever randomised controlled trials of treatments for people with epilepsy, SANAD and SANADII (both led by University of Liverpool), Laura will develop methodology to assess the external validity of models that include all seizures along a patients’ journey and ensure the models run quickly in clinic. A user-friendly website will be created for the models and to test the clinical utility.
Laura commented: “The online tool I develop will provide information to enable clinicians to forecast future seizures. This will inform patient counselling and supporting patients to make informed treatment choices at NHS settings. The tool will also act as an exemplar for models for other chronic conditions.”
Congratulating Laura on the award of her fellowship, Professor Sally Sheard, Executive Dean of the Institute of Population Health said: “This is a wonderful achievement. Laura’s work has the potential to directly impact patient care and improve the lives of those with epilepsy.”