Digital and technological tools for epilepsy: Opportunities and barriers

Abstract This review and commentary presents and discusses the major categories of digital tools that are currently available to epilepsy patients. Although prior review articles have focused on specific elements of digital solutions, this review synthesizes the breadth of resources that may be used to create a comprehensive self-management platform. The manuscript organizes the discussion into the following topics: self-management education programs, electronic diaries for self-monitoring, and automated wearables for seizure detection. Within these categories, individual interventions have been studied and available to patients for years, but the evolution of a digital ‘ecosystem’ promises the potential to integrate these tools in a manner that can meaningfully benefit patients’ health. The commentary presents a discussion of the possible concerns that are preventing more widespread adoption of these digital health resources. Despite being available for many years, these tools are utilized by only a small fraction of epilepsy patients. To directly address this, the discussion section will opine on some of the possible barriers, including a lack of historical precedent or prescribing infrastructure, a lack of financial incentives, concerns about data privacy or liability, and uncertainty about the supporting evidence for these solutions.