Phillip Patsalos, a professor and member of the Epilepsy Society, was granted the 2016 Excellence in Epilepsy Award for his lifetime achievements in the field of epilepsy.
The accolade was awarded by the British Chapter of the International League Against Epilepsy.
The epilepsy award recognizes Patsalos’s commitment to studies of new anti-epileptic drugs and the implementation of therapeutic drug monitoring in the United Kingdom and other countries worldwide.
Patsalos’s work has been pivotal in ensuring that several high-risk groups in epilepsy, like pediatric patients, pregnant women, and older patients receive the anti-epileptic drugs they need to give them optimal seizure control with a minimum of adverse effects.
“I am delighted to receive this prestigious award,” Patsalos said in an Epilepsy Society news piece. “However, I need to thank and recognize my many colleagues, collaborators and indeed students who I have worked with over the years and who have been very much a part of all that we have achieved in the field of anti-epileptic drug therapeutics and therapeutic drug monitoring.”
“Philip has greatly influenced the way we treat people with uncontrolled seizures,” said Ley Sander, medical director of the Epilepsy Society. “As a colleague he is unfailingly supportive, reliable and courteous, always going the extra mile regardless of pressures of work. His legacy is an unrivaled knowledge base of the complete armamentarium of anti-epileptic drugs and the potential for safer, more accurate prescribing of drugs for people worldwide with epilepsy.”
John Paul Leach, president of the ILAE British Chapter, said it is always difficult to choose the “outstanding performers” in the field of epilepsy, “but Professor Patsalos made this a relatively easy choice this year. His landmark and groundbreaking studies have been absolutely pivotal in allowing the adoption of the newer anti-epileptic drugs introduced since the 1990s.”
Patsalos is the head of the Epilepsy Society’s Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) Unit at the Chalfont Centre in Buckinghamshire, England, where he has served for 34 years. The TDM Unit is the only center in the UK to measure drug concentrations for all licensed anti-epileptic drugs.
He is also a professor of clinical pharmacology at the Institute of Neurology of University College London.
