Page Pennell, MD, heads BWH Epilepsy Research Program
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is fortunate to welcome Page B. Pennell, MD, a noted researcher and leading authority on epilepsy and pregnancy. Dr. Pennell joins the Department of Neurology as the director of research for the Division of Epilepsy, EEG and Sleep Neurology. She will oversee multi-center research collaborations on a wide breadth of epilepsy-related topics, from women’s issues such as hormones, pregnancy and menopause to new epilepsy treatments and neuroimaging in surgical planning and treatment of epilepsy.
Before joining the BWH staff, she was an associate professor of Neurology and director of the Epilepsy Program at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Pennell is chair of the National Professional Advisory Board for the Epilepsy Foundation, and serves on the Executive Committee, the Quality of Life Committee, and is vice chair for the Foundation’s Research Committee.
Dr. Pennell has served on the editorial boards for the journals Epilepsia and The Neurologist, and was contributing editor for Epilepsy Currents. Dr. Pennell has also published over 50 papers in her field. She is a fellow in the American Neurological Association and a member of the American Epilepsy Society and American Academy of Neurology. In the American Epilepsy Society, she has served as co-chair for two special interest groups addressing concerns for women with epilepsy, and as chair of the Clinical Therapeutics Committee. For the American Academy of Neurology, she has served as a speaker and as a course director at the annual meeting and on the Quality Standards Subcommittee and Therapeutics and Technology Assessment Subcommittee, which provided the Practice Parameter update on pregnancy in women with epilepsy.
Dr. Pennell's primary area of clinical research is in gender-specific issues for women with epilepsy: the effects of sex steroid hormones and other neuroactive steroids on seizure provocation, treatment trials for catamenial epilepsy and pregnancy in women with epilepsy, with an emphasis on optimizing maternal and fetal outcomes. Other areas of research include pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and pharmacogenetics of antiepileptic drugs and investigational drug and device trials for medically refractory epilepsy. Additional clinical interests extend to presurgical evaluation for medically-refractory epilepsy.
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