Kempenhaeghe neurologist Professor Marian Majoie to hold unique chair
On Thursday 16 June, Professor Marian Majoie, neurologist at Kempenhaeghe, will accept the unique chair ‘Focus on epileptology in education’ at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences Maastricht. This new chair will mean a greater focus on epilepsy, a condition which is often poorly understood and sometimes difficult to treat, in the education of doctors and other care providers. This is the only chair in the Netherlands with the emphasis on the design and development of epilepsy-related education and training. Professor Marian Majoie: 'As a result, we are strengthening the foundations of epilepsy care in the future.' This chair also gives concrete shape to the relationship between Kempenhaeghe and Maastricht UMC+ in the form of the Academic Centre for Epileptology.
High tech, high touch
In the Netherlands, around 96,000 people suffer from epilepsy, a condition which is often still poorly understood and has a huge impact on the daily life of the patient and their close family. Too many people, approximately 20 – 25%, still have an untreatable form of epilepsy. By means of the chair, Professor Majoie hopes to show two sides of epilepsy care: on the one hand, there are increasing numbers of developments in the areas of technology and scientific knowledge, the ‘high tech side’ of healthcare; on the other, the patient needs guidelines on how to deal with the condition and these insights are increasingly being developed, the ‘high touch side’ of healthcare. As the chairwoman of the Epilepsy guidelines working group, Professor Majoie also focuses on these two aspects of the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. She would also like the guideline development process to become closely interwoven with specialist medical education. Professor Majoie: 'It would be good if doctors in training could contribute directly to the development of the guideline, as this would introduce them to the latest achievements in the field. As a result, the guideline would become an important beacon in daily clinical practice in which medical specialists are constantly being overwhelmed with new information.' The new Epilepsy guideline leads the way in tackling and shaping the innovation of guidelines for medical specialists.
Support from the patient association
The Epilepsie Vereniging Nederland (Epilepsy Association of the Netherlands, EVN) also welcomes this development. Chairman Arjan Wietses: 'As a patient association, we feel particularly positive about the new chair and support this major step in epilepsy education'.
As well as education for doctors, Professor Majoie will also focus on training other professionals who participate in multidisciplinary care for epilepsy patients.
'Epileptology: High Tech – High Touch in the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences is the title of the speech which Professor Marian Majoie, neurologist at the Academic Centre for Epileptology at Kempenhaeghe/Maastricht UMC+, will give at Maastricht University on 16 June.
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