Epilepsy Pipeline Conference

I attended the 2012 Epilepsy Pipeline Conference in San Francisco held February 2-4 and sponsored by the Epilepsy Therapy Project.  It’s a conference attended by venture capitalists, epileptologists and other medical professionals, and business people, all of whom are interested in new developments and research in the world of epilepsy.  There were presentations about the latest drugs and devices in the pipeline.  (Although who knows if the FDA will approve any of them, but that’s a topic of discussion for another time.)  For the first time, we also held a “Shark Tank”-type competition where six different folks pitched their ideas to the audience and a panel of experts for a $50,000 grant.  Each person had 3 minutes to make their pitch and then another 7 minutes of questions from the panel and the audience.  Each panelist voted for their favorite applicant, and the audience texted in their votes, and the audience winner was awarded 2 votes.  The grant was awarded to Charles Anderson for a seizure detector iPhone app.  All of the presentations were terrific, but I think those who voted for Charles Anderson felt that the $50,000 grant would have the most impact on the development of his invention.  (Plus, the app will be very cool!)

It was also really lovely to see some folks that I haven’t seen in a while.  Amongst others, my best friend from high school (we’ve been friends since 4th grade) was also there, as she is an epileptologist in Denver at the Children’s Hospital there.  We made sure we grabbed a meal in Chinatown, at Henry’s Hunan Restaurant and had dinner together as well, as we caught up on what was going on in each other’s lives.

Then, it was off to Hawaii for another conference, but that’s a subject of another blog post.

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