Colleagues:

It is an honor and privilege to serve as the current president of the Southern Epilepsy and EEG society. Our society has a mission of education: We seek to bring high quality epilepsy and electrophysiology educational opportunities to epileptologists, neurologists, and anyone else interested in the care of persons with epilepsy. We also have a serious commitment to the education of trainees, and Residents and Fellows are an integral part of the meeting each year. Our society is small relative to, for example, AES, but our meetings are of exceptional quality, and our smaller size allows the opportunity to actually meet and talk with some of the most important names in the field of epilepsy. The meetings are designed to cover in detail topics of high current interest, recent research findings, or academic contention.

As an aside, the commitment to education of the society is not restricted to the annual meeting. Our web site is under continuous development to provide high quality CME and other educational opportunities, which can be pursued at any time. I hope you will visit the site and review our offerings.

The 2009 meeting promises to be exceptional. This year, we will be meeting at the Canyons Resort in Park City, UT, from March 27 - March 29. On the opening evening, we will debate whether there are viable options to replace WADA for assessing language and memory in epilepsy pre-surgical evaluation. The first morning session will encompass co-morbidities and associations of epilepsy such as depression, psychosis, migraines, and death. The afternoon will include the traditional Fellows’ program, formatted as a case discussion. The second day morning session will cover quality and safety issues in the epilepsy monitoring unit, in addition to discussing the results of a survey circulated throughout the members of each society, with the purpose of actively engaging meeting attendees in the education process and directed to positively impact practices of physicians at their own institutions.

Our meeting is designed to meet the educational needs of epileptologists, general neurologists, psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, nurses, and any other health care professionals who are involved in epilepsy patient care. We invite and encourage all such persons to attend.

This meeting will be a great opportunity for learning and discussion, as well as meeting with colleagues in an intimate setting. I look forward to seeing you in Park City.

William F. Malzone, MD
President, The Southern Epilepsy and EEG Society

Neurologist
Clark & Daughtrey Medical Group, P.A.
Lakeland Regional Medical Center
Lakeland, Florida 33803