VIREPA - Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy - 2nd edition

Course content

The course will cover the clinical pharmacology of currently available antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and the principles governing their rational use in people with epilepsy.  The program will be practice-oriented and aimed at the general neurologist / paediatric neurologist / paediatrician dealing with - but not exclusively involved in - epilepsy care.
The course will address the optimal use of AEDs in relation to seizure type, epilepsy syndrome, and other patient characteristics, both in newly diagnosed epilepsy and in pharmacoresistant populations. Subject material will illustrate how pharmacokinetic properties, efficacy and adverse effect profiles of individual drugs should be taken into account when individualizing pharmacotherapy in different clinical settings. The course will also address the criteria for a critical assessment of literature data relevant to therapeutics. Practical aspects, such as real-life treatment choices in children, women of childbearing potential, the elderly and patients requiring multiple drug therapy, will be discussed interactively.

Learning objectives

The course, on completion, will enable the participants to improve their ability to use AEDs rationally. It will help them to make logical decisions on when to start and to stop treatment, which drugs to choose in specific clinical setting, and how best to assess response to treatment and tailor dosage to individual needs. It will also improve their competence in assessing critically the methodology and results of AED trials.

Course format

The course itself is divided into 13 units of 2 weeks each, beginning with an introduction to the VIREPA e-learning platform, followed by 12 learning units. The learning material (textbooks and references) is available for download. The tasks to be worked on in each unit to achieve credits should be solved within an active communication process among all participants, guided by the experts in the discussion fora on the e-learning platform. These tasks help to deepen the theoretically gained knowledge from the learning material and enable to transfer this knowledge to the clinical practice of each learner. The participants are expected to spend about 8 hours (~4 hours/week) for individual study of the learning material, for reading/writing contributions in the forum and for the completion of the tasks.

All tutors are practically working in their special field, moderating the distance courses in addition to their regular duties. This gives participants the unique opportunity to draw upon their expertise and practical experience even beyond the mere requirements of the course.

Entry criteria 

• Minimum of 4 months of EEG training;
• 3 years of training in neurology, neuropediatrics, clinical neurophysiology, psychiatry or neurosurgery, or combinations of these.
  

Certification

Successful participation in this course is awarded with Credit Points for the elective “Clinical AED pharmacology” for the European Certification in Epileptology for Medical Doctors of EUREPA. To pass, participants have to complete the tasks during the e-learning phase, including a series of general questions and diagnostic tasks which will be presented at the end of the course.

Duration

The course will start in the fall of 2009 and last until spring of 2010. The exact dates are still to be announced.

Course fee

1025 Euro/respectively 975 Euro for EUREPA members. A restricted number of bursaries will be available. Full bursaries will only be available for particpants living in countries with "low" income. Most bursaries (for participants living in countries with "lower middle income") will be partial bursaries involving own payment of 275 Euro/respectively 225 Euro for EUREPA members. (See categories according to the statistics of the World Bank.)

Number of participants

up to 30

Technical requirements

Personal Computer or Mac (with Internet access)
Operating system: Windows 98 / 2000 / NT / XP, Apple Mac OS X, Linux/Unix
Internet access: Modem, ISDN or DSL (recommended)
Browser: Internet Explorer 5.5 (and higher), Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera, Konqueror
PDF-Reader (e.g. Adobe Acrobat)

Course Directors

Jacqueline A. French, Co-Chair of the ILAE Commission on Therapeutic Strategies, and
Emilio Perucca, First Vice-President of the ILAE.

Deadline for application

July 31st, 2009

Application

For application you have to fill in our online application form and your application must contain

• a signed confirmation of the neurology department on the 4 months of EEG training;
  
• a signed confirmation of the neurology department on the 3 years of neurological or comparable training
  
• CV
  
• list of publications
  

For further information, please contact

Epilepsy Academy Office
Maraweg 21
D - 33617 Bielefeld
Germany

Tel. +49 521 144 - 4310
Fax +49 521 144 - 4311

Email: office@epilepsy-academy.org
Web: http://www.epilepsy-academy.org