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ESA ASM Past Conferences

The Epilepsy Society of Australia Inc. undertakes a key educational activity each year in hosting an annual scientific meeting that rotates between capital cities in Australia. Below are the recent locations, themes and awards information from recent annual scientific meetings.

2024

Epilepsy Society of Australia 38th Annual Scientific Meeting, 6-8 November, Hobart.

Meeting Themes;

  • New and Emerging Treatment in Epilepsy
  • Epidemiology and Genetics
  • Neurodevelopmental Effects of Antiseizure Medications

Invited Speakers;

  • Professor Stéphane Auvin
  • Professor Ding Ding
  • Professor Page Pennell
  • Professor Nicola Specchio

2023

Epilepsy Society of Australia and New Zealand League Against Epilepsy Joint Scientific Meeting, 1-3 November 2023, Auckland New Zealand.

Meeting Themes;

  • Epilepsy in Indigenous Peoples
  • Epilepsy Across the Lifespan

Invited Speakers;

  • Ley Sander
  • Samuel Wiebe

2022

36th Annual Scientific Meeting, 26-28 October 2022, Adelaide South Australia

Meeting Themes;

  • Epilepsy Surgery
  • Genetic/Idiopathic Generalized Epilepsy
  • Epileptic Spasms

Invited Speakers;

  • Professor Helen Cross
  • Professor Aileen McGonigal

2021

Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting 2021

Meeting themes; 

  • Epilepsy Comorbidities
  • Epilepsy Genomics in the Post- Mendelian Era and
  • Psychogenic Non-epileptic Seizures

2020

Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting 2020

Invited Speakers

  • Professor Samuel Berkovic
  • Professor Graeme Jackson
  • Dr Michelle Kiley
  • Professor John Dunne

  Presentations

2019

33rd Annual Scientific Meeting 2019, Sydney NSW

        Meeting Themes

  • Drug Resistant Epilepsy in Children
  • ICU Epileptology Devices for Epilepsy – the Future

        International Speakers

  • Professor Michael Duchowny, Academic Chair in Comprehensive Epilepsy, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital – Miami Children’s Health System
  • Professor R. Edward Faught, Professor of Neurology, Emory University, School of Medicine in Atlanta
  • Professor Lawrence J. Hirsch, Professor of Neurology, Yale Comprehensive Epilepsy Center

2018

32nd Annual Scientific Meeting 2018, Brisbane QLD

        Meeting Themes

  • Neuro-inflammation (autoimmune epilepsy, inflammation and epileptogenesis)
  • Trial designs and ethics in the 21st century and parietal lobe epilepsy.

        International Speakers

  • Professor Jacqueline French – NYU Langone School of Medicine and Professor Sean Pittock, Mayo Clinic.

2017

31st Annual Scientific Meeting 2017

        Meeting Themes

  • Epileptic Encephalopathies
  • Sleep and Epilepsy and Brain Networks. 

        International Speakers

  • Professor Sameer M Zuberi, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist at the Royal Hospital for Children and Honorary Professor in the University of Glasgow. 
  • Professor Xingzhou Sinclair Liu, Shanghai Deji Hospital Epilepsy Center, Qingdao University Affiliated, Shanghai, P. R. C.
  • Professor Eric St Louis, Co-Director of the Center for Sleep Medicine, Associate Professor of Neurology, and Consultant in Neurology and Sleep Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, USA.

2016

30th Annual Scientific Meeting, Canberra 2016

Meeting Themes

  • Cortical Dysplasia
  • Outcomes of Epilepsy Surgery and Cannabinoids in the Treatment of Epilepsy

International Keynote Speakers

  • Dr Imad Najm M.D., Cleveland Clinic Florida, Cleveland, USA.
  • Dr Daniel Friedman, M.D., NYU Langone School of Medicine, New Yord, USA.

2015

29th Annual Scientific Meeting, Adelaide 2015

Meeting Themes

  • Women and Epilepsy
  • Autism and Epilepsy
  • Cognition and Epilepsy

International Keynote Speakers

  • Dr Daniel H. Geschwind M.D., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
  • Dr Torbjörn Tomson, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

2014

28th Annual Scientific Meeting, Melbourne 2014

Meeting Themes

  • Critical care EEG and epilepsy: including prognostication, and management of status epilepticus
  • Epilepsy – is it a focus, a zone or a network?
  • Epilepsy genetics – an expanding impact on clinical care

International Keynote Speakers

  • Dr David M. Treiman, MD, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, USA.
  • Dr Theodore H. Schwartz, MD, Brain and Mind Research Institure, New York, USA.

2013

27th Annual Scientific Meeting, Sydney 2013

Meeting Themes

  • SUDEP
  • New treatments in tuberous sclerosis
  • Epilepsy in the elderly
  • Advances in epilepsy surgery
  • Neurodevelopmental aspects of epilepsy

International Keynote Speakers

  • Dr Michael Wong, St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, USA.
  • Prof Chris Semsarian, University of Sydney and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

2012

26th Annual Scientific Meeting, Hobart 2012

Meeting Themes

  • Translational research
  • Neonatal seizures
  • Advances in localization of seizures
  • Neuropsychiatry
  • New concepts in classification

International Keynote Speakers

  • Dr Kevin Staley, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
  • Prof Ennapadam Krishnamoorthy, The Voluntary Health Services-Multispecialty Hospital and Research Institute, Taramani, India

2011

25th Annual Scientific Meeting, Brisbane 2011

Meeting Themes

  • Lennox Gastaut syndrome
  • New and old anti-epileptic drugs
  • Evolving treatments when medicines fail
  • Neuroinflammation and seizures

International Keynote Speaker

  • Prof Helen Cross, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, London, UK

2010

24th Annual Scientific Meeting, 2010

The ESA ASM was held in conjunction with the 8th Asian & Oceanian Epilepsy Congress, Melbourne Victoria 21-24 October 2010

Meeting Themes

  • Epilepsy Surgery – Who and When?
  • Outcome in Newly-diagnosed Epilepsy
  • Prevention of Symptomatic Epilepsy
  • Psychological Wellbeing in Epilepsy

2009

23rd Annual Scientific Meeting, Perth 2009

Meeting Themes

  • AEDS – the new, the topical and the practical
  • Brain tumours and epilepsy
  • Epilepsy and ethics

International Keynote Speakers

  • Dr Charles Vecht, Department of Neurology, Medical Centre The Hague, The Netherlands
  • Dr Kurupath Radhakrishnan, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum, India

Prize winners

Best platform: Dr Damian Clark (Brisbane, QLD). A study of epilepsy related deaths in the queensland population.

Best poster: Sarah Seth (Texas, USA) and Karin Borges (Brisbane, QLD). Anti-epileptic effects of tripetanoin in two chronic mouse epilepsy models.

Scientific merit awards: Patrick Carney (Melbourne, VIC), Samuel Lieblich (Perth, WA), Jessica Purnama (Melbourne, VIC), Karl Martin Klein (Melbourne, VIC)

2008

22nd Annual Scientific Meeting, Sydney 2008

Meeting Themes

  • Extratemporal epilepsy and surgery
  • How to choose an anti-epileptic drug
  • Developmental insults and childhood onset epilepsy

International Keynote Speakers

  • Prof Byung In Lee, Yonsei University College of Medicine and Severance Hospital, Seoul, Korea
  • Prof Philippe Ryvlin, Hospices Civils de Lyon et Université Claude Bernard, Lyon, France

Prize winners

Best platform: Slave Petrovski (Melbourne, VIC). A multi-SNP predictor for drug response in newly treated epilepsy.

Best poster: Douglas Crompton (Melbourne, VIC). Family studies in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.

Scientific merit awards: Gaetano Garguila (Sydney, NSW), Nigel Jones (Melbourne, VIC), Sandra Petty (Melbourne, VIC), Chong Wong (Sydney, NSW)