Loma Linda University Health Physicians Establish First Physician-Run Epilepsy Treatment Program in Malawi
8 January 2018 | Two Loma Linda University Health physicians have achieved a first in epilepsy treatment in Malawi. Warren Boling, MD, and Travis Losey, MD, traveled to the southeastern African country last year and set up the nation’s first physician-run epilepsy treatment programs.
A January 8 news story on the LLUH site reported that before this, only a few nurse-run clinics existed in Malawi while an estimated 900,000 Malawians are thought to be affected by the disease.
The LLUH physicians set up two treatment centers: one at Malamulo Adventist Hospital in rural Makawasa and the other at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, the country’s second largest hospital.
Biking is a professor and the chair of neurosurgery at Loma Linda University School of Medicine and Losey is medical director for adult neurology at the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Loma Linda University.
The two physicians brought with them a video EEG system to record electrical patterns in the brain and help physicians diagnose disorders like seizures and convulsions.
Biking and Losey worked closely with neurosurgeon Patrick Kamalo, MBBS, MMED at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital and Timothy Gobble, MD, an internist at Malamulo Adventist Hospital who also is a graduate of LLU School of Medicine.
The Loma Linda-based physicians communicate with their Malawian counterparts via virtual technology which allows them to consult on patient cases now that they have returned to the United States.
Malamulo Adventist Hospital is a 212 -bed facility which started as a clinic in 1915. It became a Leprosarium in 1925 before developing into a referral hospital in 1953.
Malawi has an Adventist population of over 494,900 with over 1400 churches.
