PhD student presents epilepsy research at Scottish Parliament

Congratulations to Gashirai Mbizvo, a junior doctor and Clinical Research Fellow at the Muir Maxwell Epilepsy Centre, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences on being invited to present his PhD study at the Scottish Parliament recently.

Gash is currently undertaking a PhD funded by Epilepsy Research UK, The Juliet Bergqvist Memorial Fund, and also supported by Epilepsy Scotland (supervised by Richard Chin, Susan Duncan, and Colin Simpson) entitled the Scottish Epilepsy Deaths Study (SEDS). He presented this alongside Susan Duncan at Epilepsy Consortium Scotland, the Cross Party Group meeting held at Scottish Parliament, Holyrood on 28 March 2019. SEDS is a nationwide study using anonymised linked administrative healthcare data to identify and characterise the burden of epilepsy-related mortality in Scotland. Results of the SEDS study indicate several important themes, including that the burden of epilepsy-related mortality in Scotland remains high, many may be potentially avoidable, and it appears to be young adults at highest risk. The SEDS study is currently ongoing and is designed to help raise awareness of the problem of epilepsy-related mortality, and on completion it will make several recommendations on how the situation might be improved going forward.