ROCHESTER, Minn. — Gregory Worrell, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-scientist and neurologist whose research focus is epilepsy — a neurological disorder that causes seizures and affects more than 50 million people worldwide. He is the William L. McKnight-3M Professor of Neuroscience at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Worrell shares how technological innovation is transforming the future of epilepsy care. 

Watch: Dr. Worrell discusses advancing epilepsy care

 Journalists: Broadcast-quality sound bites are available in the downloads at the end of the post. Please courtesy: "Mayo Clinic News Network." Name super/CG: Gregory Worrell, M.D., Ph.D./ Neurology /Mayo Clinic.

Why is epilepsy such a challenging condition to treat? 
Epilepsy affects people across the entire lifespan, from infancy through older adulthood. About one-third of patients continue to have seizures despite medication. Many also experience disabling comorbidities such as sleep disturbances, memory problems and mood disorders. Treating epilepsy effectively requires addressing all of these challenges, not just seizures alone. 

How does a team-based approach improve epilepsy care? 
Addressing epilepsy requires collaboration across many specialties, including basic neuroscience, engineering, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroradiology and psychiatry. By combining expertise and leveraging advances in biology, imaging, engineering, computing and artificial intelligence, we can better meet the complex and unmet needs of patients.  

What is the Bioelectronics Neuromodulation Innovation to Cure (BIONIC) Initiative, and why is it important for epilepsy care? 
The BIONIC initiative is focused on changing the course of epilepsy therapy and diagnostics. We're in a period of rapid technological acceleration — advances in artificial intelligence, neurotechnology, computing and connected devices. These tools allow us to deliver and adjust therapies in real time and to receive feedback from people with epilepsy as they go about their daily lives. This creates new opportunities to better understand epilepsy, create new therapies and improve patient care. 

How do these technologies help people living with epilepsy day to day? 
Today, we can track seizures as well as common epilepsy-related comorbidities such as sleep problems, memory issues and mood disorders. Importantly, we can also intervene using neuromodulation using electrical brain stimulation, to help suppress seizures and improve these comorbidities. This technology allows care to extend beyond the clinic and into a patient's home. 

What kinds of devices are being developed through BIONIC? 
We're developing a next-generation neuromodulation platform with devices that are fully implantable and integrated with wearables and computing. These devices include electrodes placed in the brain and have sensing capabilities that allow continuous recording of brain activity. The data can be securely transmitted through a handheld device to the cloud. The system enables analysis that can guide therapy and drive better understanding of seizures and related conditions. 

What can clinicians and researchers learn from this brain data? 
By continuously recording brain activity, we can track seizures, sleep patterns, memory and mood. This data allows us to adjust electrical therapies in a more personalized way. Ultimately, our goal is to forecast seizures before they happen and deliver adaptive therapies that prevent seizures before they occur and address the broader impact of epilepsy on daily life. 

How do these new devices compare to earlier generations? 
Earlier devices were groundbreaking for their time, but they had fewer capabilities. The devices we're preparing for clinical trials are significantly smaller, more powerful, rechargeable and offer expanded stimulation, sensing and streaming capabilities. This represents a major step forward in both technology and patient experience. 

What is the long-term vision of the BIONIC Initiative? 
Our vision is to build more effective therapies, prevent seizures before they occur and directly target comorbidities. With current newly developed technologies, these goals are now achievable, and BIONIC is focused on translating them into real-world patient benefits. 

Why is collaboration beyond Mayo Clinic essential? 
These challenges can't be solved by one person or one institution alone. Collaboration with other academic centers, industry partners and most importantly, patients is essential. A technology that doesn't have a clear path to commercialization, even if it's innovative, will likely only help a relatively small number of people. 

How do patients factor into the development of these therapies? 
Partnering with patients is critical. We need to understand what matters most to them and what they need to improve their quality of life. Their input helps guide technology development so that it truly addresses real-world needs. 

What is the ultimate goal of BIONIC? 
The goal of BIONIC is to bring all of these elements together into a unified effort to create the future of epilepsy therapy — one that is more personalized, proactive and focused on the whole patient. It is important to realize that the neuromodulation technologies developed for epilepsy will have a wide impact on many other diseases of the brain and mind. 
 
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Media contact: 

• Tia Ford, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu  
   
   

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