FirstSparks

This application is for medical practitioners wishing to help witnesses of epileptic seizures identify the type of seizure, or to show patients the types of seizure that they are experiencing.

Identification of a seizure type is often a problem in medical practice since witnesses may only see part of the seizure, may never have seen a seizure before, be anxious or emotional at the time of the seizure or lack the vocabulary needed to accurately describe what they have seen. Using realistic (but simulated) videos can overcome these problems.

This application provides very high quality animated videos of 8 common types of seizure including absence, atonic, tonic clonic and tonic seizures (and some rarer ones). Using videos overcomes the problems inherent in using videos of real people having these seizures, but also allows exquisite detail of facial features, and composites of typical seizure features.

It is aimed at general, paediatric, neurological and nursing practitioners who see patients with possible seizures and their witnesses. They can give the application to the witness and let them look through the types of seizures to see which looks like the seizure they witnessed. Once the seizure type is identified, there are helpful medical notes including what questions might help confirm the seizure type and what to expect if they need more expert evaluation.

It can also be used by teachers who educate others in types of epilepsy and its' management.

It was developed by A/Prof Wendyl D'Souza of the University of Melbourne using research funds (the videos were very expensive due to their very high quality). He has a research web site at www.sparks.org.au. Coding was by CereScape (www.cerescape.com).