Patient Experience
27 January, 2022
Professor Colin Doherty, Consultant Neurologist and Director of the Epilepsy service at St James’s Hospital made history as the first consultant in Ireland to treat an epilepsy patient with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).
From his review of research literature, Prof. Doherty was aware that rTMS is used to treat epilepsy patients, however this had never been performed in Ireland before. When the opportunity presented itself to perform this treatment, Prof. Doherty sprung to action however St James’s Hospital had no access to an rTMS machine.
With a patient in a critical condition of status epilepticus in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Prof. Doherty found a solution. A call to Smart TMS in Dublin was encouraging, with Eoin Kennedy, the TMS practitioner, agreeing to discuss it internally and seek an arrangement. Eoin contacted Smart TMS CEO, Gerard Barnes and Medical Director, Dr Leigh Neal and a decision was very quickly made to lend the TMS machine to St James’s Hospital, given the gravity of the situation and the desire to learn more about TMS’ applications.
Once the logistical preparations had been put in place and a date was set for treatment, Smart TMS shut their clinic for two days and the machine was relocated to the St James’s Hospital ICU.
The equipment was transported from the Smart TMS clinic on Pembroke Street to St James’s Hospital with the kind help of Brian Anderson of MDI Medical. Several courses of treatment were delivered over a two-day period, making history as the first time this treatment was delivered to an epilepsy patient in Ireland.
Prof. Doherty commented: “I am very grateful to the team at Smart TMS for moving heaven and earth to help this patient. The commitment shown in lending the hospital this machine and closing their business for two days to allow happen was extraordinary. It’s fantastic to see public and private healthcare providers come together for the good of patients and I am very excited by the potential to help other patients in future.”
Eoin Kennedy of Smart TMS added: “When Prof. Doherty first called, I wasn’t sure if this would be possible, but it was so heartening to see everyone spring to action and support this patient. TMS is an amazingly effectively treatment for mental health conditions, so it is very exciting to think of its potential applications for treating epilepsy patients in the future.”
Smart TMS specialises in the treatment of mental health conditions (depression, OCD and addiction in particular) so treating epilepsy was a new area for the team. Support was provided by MagVenture, the manufacturers of the equipment, and a novel treatment protocol was designed by Prof. Doherty in conjunction with MagVenture application specialist Matthias Kienle.
While sadly the treatment was not successful in this case, the potential for treating patients in future is evident and Prof Doherty is looking to develop an rTMS service going forward to augment St James’ existing epilepsy service.