The UCB Epilepsy Research Award 2023 to Maren Ranhoff Hov and the PreCTRL study
During this year's “Neurodagene”, the UCB research award for epilepsy was divided between ERGO - the epilepsy research group and the Brain Program - prehospital neurology research group by project manager Maren Ranhoff Hov.
The research project "Prehospital convulsion management - PreCTRL" will be carried out by research fellow and MD Ingrid Hustad at the neurology department at OUS and the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation in collaboration with, among others, supervisors Prof. Erik Taubøll and senior physician Morten Horn.
The planned pre-hospital study will focus on handling patients in the ambulance service with ongoing convulsions. The research field of prehospital convulsion management is new and very important, as convulsions in epilepsy occur outside hospital in the vast majority of patients and rapid management with anti-seizure drugs is crucial for morbidity, prognosis and mortality. Despite this, there is little research focused on the handling of this patient group in the ambulance service and no national or international standardized treatment protocol.
After the project has been completed, the researchers hope that they have developed communication and increased competence for the ambulance service in handling patients with ongoing convulsions.
The prize money will be used for the development of digital tools for the pre-hospital service.
