Abstracts

Rationale: Using electronic medical records to obtain structured clinical data at point of care in all patients who come through the Epilepsy Clinic would be a practical way to collect large sets of data to optimize patient care as well as research.Methods: To this end, we have built into our Electronic Medical Record (EPIC), Structured Clinical Documentation Support (SCDS) tools that conform to current Best Practices consensus in Epilepsy. These tools electronically capture large amounts of clinical and diagnostic data including those pertaining to imaging, EEG and neuro-modulation treatment, write notes and provide Best Practices prompts when appropriate. The clinical information meets all the quality standards proposed by the American Academy of Neurology for Epilepsy care. Assessment of all epilepsy patients includes GAD7, NDDIE, ESS, QOLIE-10, MoCA and MRC prognostic index in addition to the other clinical and diagnostic details. We also collect DNA samples during the initial visit after obtaining informed consent from patient or approved next of kin.Results: We have thus far enrolled 133 patients for initial visits and are beginning our first annual follow-up visits. All patients have DNA stored. We have captured and cleaned significant amounts of discrete data in these patients and are in the process of performing pairwise correlations and principal component analyses of the scored tests.Conclusions: The implementation of Structured Clinical Documentation tools into the Electronic Medical Records can help collect useful data in a large number of patients at point of care without significant time expense which can then be used for Best Practices and Outcomes Research.