Abstracts

Rationale: Despite a growing number of digital tools for epilepsy self-management and substantial academic evidence, there remains limited awareness among neuroscience clinicians and a gap in clinical utilization. In order to better quantify and highlight this situation, we sought to assess the general awareness, usage, and feasibility of implementation in a group of neuroscience nurses using a web-based voluntary survey. Methods: A proprietary web-based survey was designed to assess the general awareness and implementation of digital tools for epilepsy among the membership of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses. The survey included questions about epilepsy self-management programs (WebEase, the MEW Network, and Mindset), mobile electronic diaries (My Seizure Diary, Seizuretracker, and EpiDiary), and seizure detection wearables (Embrace, Brain Sentinel, and Smartmonitor). Respondents were asked to assess their comfort and awareness with each tool using a Likert scale (1=Learner, 4=Advanced). Respondents were also asked how often they integrated these various technologies into their clinical practices, as well as a variety of questions about feasibility of use and barriers to adoption. The survey was sent to 4719 members of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses. Results: After a 3-week waiting period, the invitation emails received 69 views. The survey was started by 37 individuals with 17 full completions. The vast majority of the respondents reported being a 'learner only' for the category of self-management programs (1.15, scale 1-4, SD 0.49), with slightly more awareness for the MEW Network as a whole. A larger percentage of respondents reported greater awareness and comfort with the electronic diaries, although still only in the 'basic' category (1.35, scale 1-4, SD 0.59). Users were also in the learner stage for wearable technologies (1.10, scale 1-4, SD 0.31). In terms of actual clinical utilization, the large majority of respondents reported never using any of these technologies in clinical practice. The majority of respondents (81.25%) felt that integrating these technologies was important for their practice, and were interested in learning more about these tools (85.6%, very or somewhat interested). However, 93.3% of users reported not having access to materials about these digital tools, and 62.5% reported a lack of confidence in their ability to integrate these digital solutions into their practice.  Conclusions: These survey results highlight the striking gap in awareness and implementation of digital tools for epilepsy within a subset of neuroscience clinical providers. The categories of self-management programs (most of which are supported by academic evidence), electronic diaries, and seizure detection wearables were all reported to have limited awareness, implementation, and access. Respondents were slightly more aware of the electronic seizure diaries. The majority of the respondents reported seeing value in the use of these tools, but simultaneously reported a lack of access to materials to educate patients and the time to introduce these solutions to patients. This highlights a significant gap in epilepsy care as it relates to the overall usage of digital technologies. Funding: No funding