The USC Epilepsy Care Consortium represents a partnership comprised of 10 individual comprehensive epilepsy centers located across the southern half of California, from the highly urban Los Angeles and Orange Counties in the South, to the mid-sized cities in counties of Kern, and Fresno, to the more rural Tulare, and Kings Counties in Central California. Each of the centers represents an example of one of the disparate delivery paradigms in the complex American health care ecosystem. The Consortium emphasizes maximum resource sharing to allow each of the partner centers to function beyond its capabilities as an independent entity.
The USC Comprehensive Epilepsy Center is led by Dr. Christi Heck, Medical Director, and Dr. Charles Liu, Surgical Director. As part of Keck Medicine of USC and USC Keck School of Medicine this center represents the academic anchor to the Consortium and is a National Association of Epilepsy Centers (NAEC) accredited Level 4 Epilepsy Center. Since its inception, the USC Comprehensive Epilepsy Center has developed a unique identity of emphasizing access to care to all patients that span the socio-economic spectrum in the USC-affiliated hospitals. This effort has led to national recognition, with Dr. Christi Heck being selected to represent this concept on the National Academies Panel on the Public Health Dimensions of Epilepsy, resulting in the key publication “Epilepsy Across the Spectrum”
Through this center, all other Consortium centers and their patients have access to the latest technologies and clinical trials related to epilepsy care, as well as all the clinical and research resources of a world-class academic medical center and university. The weekly surgical conferences for the Consortium are held virtually, where all the Consortium partners gather to share their expertise.
Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA)
Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA) is the highest ranked pediatric hospital in the Western USA and is a principal affiliate of the USC Keck School of Medicine. It represents the primary resource for pediatric care in the Los Angeles Basin and beyond. The CHLA Epilepsy Center is under the leadership of Dr. Sucheta Joshi, Medical Director Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, and Dr. Virendra Desai, Surgical Director, Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. The CHLA Epilepsy Center serves as the anchor pediatric patients within the Consortium. The CHLA Comprehensive Epilepsy program provides state of the art services for children with epilepsy ranging from diagnostics in genetics and neuroimaging, comprehensive dietary treatments and the most advanced surgical techniques including robotic-assistance, minimally invasive procedures, and neuromodulation.
Rancho Los Amigos Epilepsy Center
The Rancho Los Amigos Epilepsy Center at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center (RLA) is led by Dr. Susan Shaw, Medical Director and Dr. Charles Liu, Surgical Director. It continues to be the only NAEC Level 4 center in a safety-net hospital. When it was established in 2007 by Dr. David Millett and Dr. Charles Liu, it was the first such center nationally to provide comprehensive epilepsy care to all patients irrespective of socio-economic status, greatly expanding upon the long-standing efforts of the USC Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at LA General Medical Center. It continues to exist as a close partnership between RLA and LA General Medical Center. RLA has the only epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) within the large network of facilities of the Department of Health Services (DHS). The program was honored with a Productivity and Quality Award by Los Angeles County in 2011 and continues to serve as a unique resource for all patients of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the second-largest municipal health system in the country.
Hoag Hospital is consistently ranked highest amongst hospitals in Orange County and is a key member of the Consortium. The Hoag Epilepsy Center represents an outstanding example of a comprehensive epilepsy center based in a highly-resourced community hospital, where the private practice paradigm is being melded with the high level care and research that is typically only done at academic medical centers. After leaving Rancho Los Amigos in 2014, Dr. David Millett became the director of the Hoag program and with the help of Dr. Charles Liu started the transformation of the program to what it is today. Dr. James Park and Dr. Vivek Mehta joined the program in 2018 and were instrumental in elevating the center to NAEC level 4 designation. Dr. Park became co-director of the program in 2023 and together with Dr. Millett they continue to work on bringing the newest treatments, technologies, and innovations to the patients of Orange County and the surrounding areas.
The leadership of the USC Epilepsy Care Consortium remains acutely aware of the unique challenges of providing epilepsy care beyond the urban settings. In 2016, Dr. Charles Liu and Dr. Joseph Chen formed a partnership between the USC Neurorestoration Center and Kern Medical Center provide sub-specialty neurosurgical services to patients in Kern County. This effort led to the establishment of the first and only comprehensive epilepsy center in Bakersfield and Kern County in 2017. The Kern Medical Epilepsy Center is led by Dr. Hari Veedu, Medical Director and Dr. Charles Liu, Surgical Director. This center provides epilepsy services to some of the most underserved patients in California and receives considerable support from the rest of the Consortium members. In 2018 Kern received its first NAEC designation, reaching Level 3. With the only adult epilepsy monitoring unit between Sacramento and Los Angeles, the Kern Medical Epilepsy Center serves as a singular resource for the region, including Kern and neighboring counties such as Tulare and Kings. Together, Dr. Richard Pantera and Dr. Charles Liu are leading the effort to make the services of the Kern Medical Epilepsy Center accessible to all the patients served by the Kaweah Delta Health Care District in Visalia CA, a singular resource between Fresno and Bakersfield.
Mission Hospital a fully accredited by The Joint Commission and designated as a Magnet hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center for nursing excellence and is highly recognized for its high quality of care, evidenced through various healthcare quality benchmarks. Mission Hospital is part of Providence, a not-for-profit provider of integrated health care. Together, we work to improve the quality of life in the communities we serve in the tradition of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange. In Addition, Mission hospital is also a fully accredited and recognized Comprehensive Stroke Center with the highest accolades. The Mission Epilepsy Center represents an outstanding example of an adult and pediatric epilepsy center where academic medical centers level services are delivered in a community hospital setting. Aside from serving the southern Orange County area, Mission hospital is a destination for complex epilepsy care within the greater Orange County Providence network due to its ability for advanced management of complex epilepsy patients.
Children’s Hospital Orange County
CHOC’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center is a national leader in pediatric epilepsy care, offering cutting-edge diagnostics, innovative medical approaches, and advanced surgical interventions from a team of renowned epilepsy experts. CHOC was the first children’s hospital in California to be named a Level 4 epilepsy center by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers (NAEC) and remains the only pediatric facility in Orange County, California with this distinction. CHOC offers the professional expertise and resources necessary to provide the highest level of medical and surgical care for patients living with complex epilepsy.
Our dedicated team coordinates care with families throughout every stage of their medical journey. At CHOC, families have access to a multidisciplinary team including pediatric epileptologists, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, pediatric neurosurgeons with special training in epilepsy surgery, registered dieticians, neuropsychologists, social workers, EEG technologists, and a dedicated nurse navigator who serves as an advocate for patients and their families in coordinating care.
Valley Children’s Hospital Epilepsy Center has served a singular role in providing outstanding care for the children of Central California. Before the establishment of the adult epilepsy center at Kern Medical, the Valley Children’s Hospital Epilepsy was the only NAEC designated epilepsy center in between Sacramento and Los Angeles. The program was rejuvenated with the recruitment of Dr. Cesar Santos from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 2016, where he served for many years as Chief of Pediatric Neurology and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics. As the Medical Director of the Valley Children’s Hospital Epilepsy Center, Dr. Santos has greatly increased the scope and quality of epilepsy services. As the only dedicated children’s hospital in Central California, Valley Children’s has established presence and partnerships in both Visalia and Bakersfield. In 2018, Dr. Cesar Santos and Dr. Charles Liu began to create pathways for easier bidirectional access to epilepsy services between Valley Children’s and Kern Medical, as well as the other consortium centers such as Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles .
Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital
The not-for-profit Cottage Health provides advanced medical care to the Central Coast region. Comprised of more than 700 physicians, many with subspecialties typically found only at university medical centers, Cottage Health’s comprehensive range of specialized services includes the Cottage Children’s Medical Center, Level 1 Trauma Center, Neuroscience Institute, Heart & Vascular Center, Center for Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Hospital.
Under the leadership of Michael Gibbs, MD, Cottage Health offers a comprehensive epilepsy program with state-of-the-art monitoring equipment and a full care team, including an experienced nurse practitioner and neuroscience nurses. Each patient receives personalized, hands-on care during their diagnosis and treatment. Cottage Epilepsy Center is part of the USC Epilepsy Care Consortium.
Under the leadership of a dedicated team of neurosurgeons, The Cottage Neurosciences Clinic was developed to treat a wide range of conditions affecting the brain. Epilepsy surgery procedures are performed by Nicole Moayeri, MD and Akin Oni-Orisan, MD. Starting in 2020, coordinated by Dr. Charles Liu, the epilepsy surgical services became integrated with that of the USC Comprehensive Epilepsy Center for epilepsy surgery services.
Kaweah Health is the dominant healthcare system in Tulare County California. Kaweah Delta Medical Center originated in 1961 and now serves approximately 600,000 people. In total, there are 613 beds in the district: 435 general acute care beds at the main hospital, a 54-bed skilled nursing/subacute facility, a 61-bed acute rehabilitation/short-stay SNF facility, and a 63-bed acute inpatient psychiatric facility.
Kaweah Delta operates as a non-profit hospital, with less than 1% of funding coming from taxpayers. The emergency room serves 100,000 admissions annually.
The County is very underserved with regard to physician resources. A total of 4 neurologists practice in the entire County. Thus, our seizure population has limited resources for care. We are building this much needed care through our alliance with epilepsy centers of the USC Epilepsy Care Consortium. Plans for use of telemedicine platforms to deliver specialized epilepsy care from geographically distant specialists will soon bolster our growing epilepsy efforts in Tulare County.