Posts by M. Brandon Westover, MD, PhD
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Guidance for Treatment of Epileptiform Activity in Critically Ill Patients
Massachusetts General Hospital researchers provide evidence that interventions for epileptiform activity in critically ill patients should prioritize those with average epileptiform activity burden ≥10%, be more conservative when maximum epileptiform activity is low, and be tailored to the preadmission profile.
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Peak Epileptiform Activity Burden Linked to Neurologic Outcome in a Range of Hospitalized Patients
When neurologists at Massachusetts General Hospital used a computational neural network to review continuous EEG data on 1,967 medical, neurologic, and surgical patients, peak EA burden, but not the cumulative burden, was independently associated with very poor neurologic outcomes and death.
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Electroencephalographic Seizures Are Common in COVID-19, Linked to Increased Mortality Risk
Among 197 COVID-19 patients undergoing clinically indicated continuous electroencephalogram monitoring, 10% had electrographic seizures, Massachusetts General Hospital researchers and colleagues retrospectively determined, and these seizures were associated with a significant fourfold higher risk of mortality.
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Automated Clustering of Continuous EEG Data Accelerates Physician Review
Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have created an automated method of clustering continuous EEG data that allows physicians to annotate it about 45 times faster than with unaided manual review.
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COVID-19 Acuity Score Identifies Outpatients at High or Low Risk of Adverse Outcomes
Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have developed and validated the first scoring system that triages patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 who do not require immediate hospitalization.
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Grand Rounds: Mass General Neurologists Respond to COVID-19
Neurologists must stay alert to potential neurologic complications of COVID-19 and the drugs used to treat it.
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Neural Network Beats Experts at Detecting Epileptiform Discharges on EEGs
SpikeNet, a computer algorithm that analyzes EEG waveforms, was more accurate than fellowship-trained clinical neurophysiologists and the standard commercial software at detecting interictal epileptiform discharges.
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Why Mass General Neurologists Are Animated About Big Data
Neurologists at Massachusetts General Hospital are using big data and machine learning to make better and more informed decisions on patient care.
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Training Critical Care Nurses to Perform Seizure Screening Is Feasible
In the largest study to date, training neuro-ICU nurses to perform seizure screening utilizing continuous EEG compressed spectral arrays was feasible and was associated with moderate sensitivity.
Biography
M. Brandon Westover, MD, PhD, obtained his PhD working in the field of Artificial Intelligence (information theory and computer vision), and is a board certified practicing Neurologist and Clinical Neurophysiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He directs the MGH Critical Care EEG Monitoring Service and the MGH Clinical Data Animation Center (CDAC).
His research uses Big Data and artificial intelligence to improve medical care for patients with anoxic brain injury, seizures and seizure-like brain states, cerebral ischemia, delirium, and sleep disorders, and to develop closed-loop control technology for precision control of anesthesia in the ICU.
Neuroscience Care at Mass General
Through a combination of unmatched expertise, creativity and compassion, Mass General Neuroscience relentlessly advances the fields of Neurosurgery, Neurology and Psychiatry to unleash our patients’ potential.