The MCG Comprehensive Epilepsy Program has been named a Level 4 specialized epilepsy center by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers. The Level 4 designation is the highest given by the NAEC and identifies those centers that offer the broadest range of complex medical and surgical treatments for epilepsy.

The MCG Comprehensive Epilepsy Program is the only epilepsy center in Georgia and South Carolina to earn this designation.

"Since 1977, the MCG Comprehensive Epilepsy Program has treated more than 30,000 patients from places as far away as California, Bermuda, even Korea," said Dr. Ki Lee, the program’s director and an epileptologist. "As a national referral center, we treat patients with intractable epilepsy in which the seizures cannot be controlled simply by medication. Thanks to innovations in the treatment of this disorder, we are now able to end seizures, without side effects, in a majority of patients."

The MCG Comprehensive Epilepsy Program provides:

· 24-hour video/EEG monitoring and recording with surface and intracranial electrodes to diagnose and pinpoint seizure activity

· the latest medical therapies, including clinical trials for new anti-seizure medications

· epilepsy surgery, including biopsy, electrode placement, vagus nerve stimulator, resection, hemispherectomy, and clinical trials for new surgical therapies such as Neuropace

· affiliation with the area’s only children’s hospital, the MCG Children’s Medical Center

· support through the MCG Epilepsy Support Group

According to the NAEC guidelines, fourth-level epilepsy centers serve as a regional or national referral facility. They provide the most complex forms of intensive neurodiagnostic monitoring as well as more extensive medical, neuropsychological and psychosocial treatment. They also offer a complete evaluation for epilepsy surgery, including intracranial electrodes, and provide a broad range of surgical procedures for epilepsy.

Fourth- and third-level centers are preferred sites of treatment for patients with intractable seizures. First-level care is provided by the primary care physician, and second-level care by a general neurologist. "We strongly believe that early specialized intervention is more likely to achieve the best results and to be more cost effective over the long run," said Dr. Thaddeus S. Walczak, Committee Chairman of the NAEC’s Committee to Revise the Guidelines for Services, Personnel and Facilities at Specialized Epilepsy Centers.

For more information on the MCG Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, visit

The National Association of Epilepsy Centers (NAEC) is a non-profit trade association whose members include more 60 specialized epilepsy centers across the United States. Founded in 1988 by physician leaders committed to setting a national agenda for quality epilepsy care, the group educates private and governmental policymakers and regulators about appropriate patient care standards, reimbursement issues and medical services policies. NAEC is designed to complement, not compete with, the efforts of existing scientific and charitable epilepsy organizations.

MCG Health System is composed of three separate organizations -- MCG Health, Inc. and the clinical services offered by the faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia and the members of the MCG Physicians Practice Group Foundation. The physicians of MCG Health System are community physicians, faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia, or employees of the MCG Physicians Practice Group Foundation, not employees of MCG Health, Inc. MCG Health, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation operating the MCG Medical Center, MCG Children’s Medical Center, the MCG Sports Medicine Center, MCG Ambulatory Care Center, the Georgia Radiation Therapy Center and related clinical facilities and services. MCG Health, Inc. was formed to support the research and education mission of the Medical College of Georgia and to build the economic growth of the CSRA, the state of Georgia and the Southeast by providing an environment for faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia and the MCG Physicians Practice Group Foundation and community physicians to deliver the highest level of primary and specialty health care. For more information, please visit www.MCGHealth.org, or to make an appointment, call 706-721-CARE. For more information on the NAEC, visit www.naecepilepsy.org.