In their study, published in Epilepsia, researchers demonstrated that seizures can be tracked in the home environment, giving clinicians access to data that could have a dramatic impact on the way in which epilepsy is treated in the future.

Tracking epileptic seizures over time is challenging and relies upon a person keeping a subjective diary. It is an unreliable format, as people with epilepsy can experience seizures without realizing it, due to impairment of consciousness and memory loss, or might misinterpret several symptoms as seizures when they are not. This is particularly important for those with treatment resistant epilepsy, who have ongoing seizures despite treatment with anti-seizure medication—known to occur in around a third of people with epilepsy.

Novel subcutaneous electroencephalography (sqEEG) systems—consisting of a small electrode placed beneath the skin—have been proposed as a means of overcoming this challenge, but the feasibility, acceptability and overall clinical utility of these systems had not been tested until now.