Parampreet S Kharbanda

Recipient of the 2005 Asian-Oceanian Fellowship in Clinical Epileptology

Assistant Professor of Neurology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, 
Chandigarh, India

In 2007 I completed my one year Clinical Epileptology Fellowship supported by the Epilepsy Society of Australia at The Epilepsy Research Centre (ERC), Austin Health, University of Melbourne. I had a broad based experience in various facets of epilepsy research and care. I was exposed to excellent research in epilepsy genetics, the stronghold of the ERC. I also had the chance to spend a lot of time at the Brain Research Institute (BRI) at the Austin. Here I gained experience in cutting edge research in Epilepsy Imaging and its application to clinical work. The work being done here on EEG-fMRI, language fMRI, and other functional and structural imaging is of a very high standard. The EEG training I received at the Austin and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, really helped in increasing my expertise in routine and long term video EEG monitoring, both in adults and children.

Active participation in the comprehensive epilepsy program meetings gave me exposure to the detailed clinical, electrophysiological, imaging, SPECT, PET, and neuropsychological work up of chronic epilepsy patients, especially in the context of pre-surgical evaluation. I also attended the teaching sessions in the field of Medicine, Neurology, Neuroradiology and Neuropathology. In addition to this, it was a great personal experience and I had good time with all my colleagues, and the friendly Australian people.

After returning to India I have started incorporating the knowledge I gained into our Comprehensive Epilepsy Care Program at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh. I thank the ESA for this opportunity and hope that more young people with interest in Epilepsy benefit from this.

Param Kharbanda

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