Topic: Treatments in Autoimmune Encephalitis 

Date: February 2nd-2023  4 PM EST

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Dr. Cree will be giving an overview of autoimmune encephalitis with a focus on treatments. Dr. Cree completed his MD and PhD in Biochemistry at UCSF. His neurology residency training was at Columbia University. He returned to UCSF for a Sylvia Lawry National Multiple Sclerosis Society fellowship and received a Masters in Advanced Studies in Clinical Research. He is the Clinical Research Director at the UCSF MS Center. He divides his time between patient care, clinical research and teaching.

Topic:  Autoimmune Encephalitis

Date: February 7th-2023 12 PM EST | 6 PM CET

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Dr. Spatola has been a Research fellow in basic and clinical neuroimmunology at IDIBAPS (August
Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute), Neuroimmunology laboratory (Head
Prof. J Dalmau), and University Clinical Hospital (Head Prof. F Graus), Barcelona,
Spain, since March 2015.

Topic: Autoimmune Encephalitis Misdiagnosis in Adults

Date: February 13th, 5 PM EST

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A broad range of disorders are misdiagnosed as autoimmune encephalitis and misdiagnosis occurs in many settings including at specialized centers.  Dr. Flanagan will review his et al recently published work, a case series of 107 outpatients misdiagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis. Identified red flags suggesting alternative diagnoses included an insidious onset, positive nonspecific serum antibody, and failure to fulfill autoimmune encephalitis diagnostic criteria. Autoimmune encephalitis misdiagnosis leads to morbidity from unnecessary immunotherapies and delayed treatment of the correct diagnosis. 

Dr. Eoin Flanagan is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Consultant in the departments of Neurology and Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN). His clinical expertise and research are focused on the diagnosis and management of autoimmune neurological disorders with an emphasis on inflammatory autoimmune spinal cord disorders and their mimics including their MRI patterns. He also has an interest in the epidemiology of inflammatory demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system and autoimmune neurologic disorders.

Topic: Pediatric Autoimmune Encephalitis

Date: February 21st 2023 7 PM EST

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Dr. Santoro serves as the Director of Neuroimmunology and Demyelinating Disorders Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He is also an assistant professor of neurology at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Santoro completed his undergraduate, masters, and medical degrees at Tulane University. He subsequently completed residencies in pediatrics and child neurology at Stanford University School of Medicine and subsequently had sub-specialty training in neuroimmunology and pediatric multiple sclerosis at Harvard Medical School. Santoro is a passionate clinician-scientist who has published over 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Santoro is one of only a handful of national clinician-scientists who treats neurologic disorders associated with Down syndrome.

Clinical Interests: Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM), Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis, Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorders, MOG Antibody Syndrome, Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis, Optic Neuritis, Transverse Myelitis, Neurologic Disorders Associated With Down Syndrome, Bickerstaff’s Brainstem Encephalitis and GQ1b Antibody Mediated Disorders, Autoimmune Encephalitis, Hashimoto’s Encephalitis,Down Syndrome Regression Disorder

He currently serves on the American Academy of Neurology’s Health Policy Sub-committee and as the representative of the AAN to the American Medical Association. Santoro is a long-standing advocate for persons with disabilities and has lobbied locally in California and on Capitol Hill.

Topic: The Role of Behavioral Medicine in Autoimmune Encephalitis Care: Supportive services for the patient, caregiver, and family members over the long-term

Date: February 23rd, 2023 3 PM EST

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Dr. Tworek is a clinical health psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH. She completed her graduate training at Nova Southeastern University in South Florida, where she developed a passion for health psychology and providing psychology services to those managing medical diagnoses. She completed her fellowship within the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis at the Cleveland Clinic. It was through working with the dedicated team of neurologists at CCF that she developed a passion for the unique needs and opportunities to provide support and therapeutic services to those diagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis. Through the support of the Mellen center, she is working toward expanding behavioral medicine services to the AE patient population to include inpatient hospitalizations, outpatient follow up, and caregiver support.