Guidance published on at-home video monitoring for epilepsy

Health Technology Wales has published new guidance on the use of at-home video monitoring to diagnose and manage epilepsy.

Epilepsy is a condition where sudden bursts of electrical activity in the brain stop normal brain activity. These episodes typically result in seizures.

To diagnose epilepsy patients are asked to keep track of seizures at home.

This can be challenging as seizures happen at any time of day or night and there may be other reasons why someone is having a seizure.

The brain can be monitored for unusual activity using an electroencephalogram (EEG) and brain scans, however this relies on a seizure taking place during the EEG and may involve a hospital stay of several days to achieve this.

At home video monitoring involves setting up a camera in the home to record seizures as they happen.

The technology conducts a report of brain activity that can be used for diagnosis and ongoing treatment of epilepsy.

This can reduce reliance on patients’ and their families for accurate record keeping and eliminate the need to go into hospital for monitoring.

HTW’s guidance states that although at-home video monitoring shows  promise, there is insufficient clinical and economic evidence available to support routine adoption of the technology.

To read the guidance in full click here.