Aid sent to people with epilepsy in Haiti

The international community of epilepsy specialists is providing financial support and specialized medical equipment to help re-establish services to epilepsy patients in Haiti.

In addition to providing long-term support needed to maintain normal clinical services, the project organizers’ initial goal is to assist in preventing neurological damage and potential risk of death from break-through seizures that might occur when patients have lost or used up all of their anticonvulsant medication.

Leading the effort is the International League Against Epilepsy and its North American branches, the American Epilepsy Society and Canadian League Against Epilepsy. Their goal is also to assure that clinical services are available to diagnose and treat any cases of post-traumatic epilepsy that might result from head trauma sustained in the earthquake.

For more information on this project go to AESNET.ORG

Jessica K. Smith Founder and CEO; Executive Director

Jessica Keenan Smith is a patient advocate and epilepsy community leader with more than 15 years of experience. As Founder and CEO of Living Well With Epilepsy and Executive Director of ASENT she bridges the gap between the scientific and patient communities, with a particular focus on the needs of the epilepsies. Jessica Keenan Smith is Founder and CEO of Living Well With Epilepsy, an award winning online resource for people affected by epilepsy to share stories and access in-depth information on the disease. Since 2009, Living Well With Epilepsy (https://livingwellwithepilepsy.com) has been featured in Forbes, Wired, NBC, NPR and the cover story of Epilepsy Advocate Magazine and has partnered with companies such as UCB, Lundbeck, Sunovion, Eisai, and more. Ms. Smith is also the Executive Director of the American Society for Experimental Neurotherapeutics (ASENT) (https://asent.org), an organization that brings together leaders from industry, academia, government and advocacy who are engaged in bringing drugs and devices to market across all neurologic disease states. In this role she is responsible for leading a successful scientific journal and annual scientific conference with speakers from all over the world.

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