The Clinical Care Potential of EpiTRAQ
Sucheta M. Joshi, MD, MS, and Nicholas Beimer, MD, detail the potential benefit the EpiTRAQ tool has from both a patient and clinician perspective.
"You can really empower patients in management of their disease by showing how their transition readiness is improving.”
Results from a recent study evaluating EpiTRAQ demonstrated the transition tool’s validity, with over 80% of adolescents and young adults giving themselves higher ratings on at least 3 items at repeat validation 6 months after the initial benchmark. The tool is multifaceted for both the clinician and patient experience and incorporates epilepsy-relevant items based on concepts in current epilepsy quality measures.
On 1 hand, patients can learn more about a multitude of disease management care topics such as handling their condition, medications, and what to do during a seizure, among others. On the other, clinical hand, EpiTRAQ gives physicians greater confidence that the patient will be able to handle all of their disease management when they take a step such as going off to college or leaving home for work.
Sucheta M. Joshi, MD, MS, FAES, FAAP, and Nicholas Beimer, MD, investigators in the study, claim that the tool does a great job at asking questions that may not be so commonplace at a doctor’s visit, such as pregnancy or rescue medications. Joshi, a clinical professor of pediatrics and medical director of pediatric epilepsy, and Beimer, an assistant professor of epilepsy, both at Michigan Medicine, sat down with NeurologyLive to discuss the ways EpiTRAQ can improve clinician care for the future.
