50,000 children in Texas suffer from epilepsy. Hispanic patients with epilepsy and epilepsy patients with limited English proficiency experience many disparities in their epilepsy care. They are less likely to receive medications for their seizures, experience longer delays to seizure remission and are less likely to receive epilepsy surgery. The Department of Neurology of The University of Texas Dell Medical School, in conjunction with Dell Children’s Medical Center is establishing a pediatric epilepsy clinic for Spanish speaking families with limited English proficiency. The purpose is both to provide excellent care to an underserved population and to provide data regarding health care disparities and the success of language concordance on adherence to treatment and epilepsy outcomes. We are looking for a student with familiarity with Redcap (or the ability to learn quickly) to assist in setting up the database for this study and perform other related tasks. Depending on the student’s interest and level of Spanish fluency (Spanish not required to set up the database) we may be able to incorporate clinical responsibilities as well. If the student is interested he/she could also be co-author on a scientific paper regarding healthcare disparities in the field of pediatric epilepsy. This is a volunteer position, but would be helping an at risk population and could lead to an abstract at a scientific conference (such as the Child Neurology Society Meeting) and/or a published manuscript.
Interested parties should contact Karen Skjei at karen.skjei@austin.utexas.edu