Ting-Rong Hsu registration

Wei-Sheng Lin   registration

specialty services:

• General pediatrics
• preventive healthcare
• vaccination
• developmental assessment
• pediatric neurological diseases
• childhood epilepsy
• pediatric critical care medicine
• early intervention for children with developmental delay
• attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• behavioral problems
• headaches
• motor disorders
• sleep problems
• neuromuscular disorders

Pediatric Neurological Therapy Center for Epilepsy and Rare and Severe Neurological Disorders

The Children's Neurological Epilepsy Center, established in 2012, specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric neurological diseases, actively engages in medical research, improves clinical medical treatment services, and passes on teaching experience. Its main services currently include:

(A) Integrated Treatment for Children with Epilepsy

The integrated treatment group for children with stubborn epilepsy has been operating for many years and is the only team in Taiwan specifically established for the treatment of children with stubborn epilepsy. This clinical service framework is the first of its kind in Taiwan. We have set up two epilepsy video beds in the A092 ward, providing 24-hour EEG monitoring for children with stubborn epilepsy. Every Thursday afternoon, pediatric neurologists, pediatric neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, and nuclear medicine physicians gather in the pediatric medicine department meeting room to conduct comprehensive evaluations for children with treatment-resistant epilepsy. We also provide real-time feedback and recommendations to parents based on the child's test results to provide the best possible treatment direction for the child.

Future prospects:

1. On the basis of the existing infrastructure, the 24-hour EEG monitoring equipment can be used for clinical services and research on children's sleep disorders.
2. Alternative therapies for treatment-resistant epilepsy are a promising area for development and exploration, which can be further explored by new members joining the team.
3. Children with treatment-resistant epilepsy who live under the shadow of the disease for a long time or who receive long-term medication or epilepsy surgery are issues that attract worldwide attention. We hope to investigate the impact of these factors on the quality of life of these children.

(B) Integrated Treatment for Pediatric Brain Tumors

The Taipei Veterans General Hospital (VGH) Pediatric Brain Tumor Integrated Treatment Group has been operating for many years and is currently the most comprehensive brain tumor treatment group in Taiwan. Compared to world-class pediatric brain tumor treatment institutions, it is equally competitive. The group holds regular monthly meetings for pediatric brain tumor integrated treatment. Pediatric neurologists, pediatric neurosurgeons, neuro-radiologists, and cancer center radiation oncologists work together to conduct comprehensive assessments and treatment recommendations for pediatric brain tumor patients, and provide long-term follow-up services for patients after treatment. During the long-term follow-up process, the group also has psychologists and rehabilitation specialists providing complete psychological assessments and rehabilitation for patients, as well as social workers and nursing teams providing holistic care for the patients' physical and mental well-being.

Future prospects:

1. Targeted drug therapy and personalized treatment for pediatric brain tumors are the prospects for drug therapy. The team needs experts in pharmacogenomics to join in this effort.
2. After pediatric brain tumor patients undergo surgical, radiation, and chemotherapy treatments, how to avoid negative impacts on their memory, psychology, cognition, endocrine system, and body, and how to improve their quality of life, are issues that need to be continuously explored.

(C) Comprehensive assessment for early intervention in children

Our early intervention assessment team has been established for many years, consisting of pediatric neurologists, clinical researchers in pediatric neurology, pediatric rehabilitation physicians, adolescent mental health physicians, and pediatric genetic counselors. Each member provides their expertise in different fields to identify developmental delays in infants and young children as early as possible, while exploring potential causes so that these delayed children can receive early intervention and other relevant therapies.

Future prospects:

1. In the accumulation of experience in the early intervention assessment team, we seek ways to prevent developmental delays.
2. To provide continuous rehabilitation and intervention for numerous delayed children requires a significant amount of human resources. In the current reality of inadequate manpower, finding the most effective and low human resource demanding therapies for developmental delayed children should be the goal for the future.

(D) Gene therapy for neuromuscular diseases

With the rapid development of gene diagnosis and gene therapy worldwide, Taiwan has made significant progress in newborn screening technology. In collaboration with Dr. Niu Tao-ming's team at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, gene therapy has been developed for neuromuscular diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), with several patients already undergoing treatment at our hospital and showing the best treatment outcomes.

(E) Other neurological diseases

In recent years, neurological immune diseases have been widely discovered and diagnosed worldwide, with many new immunotherapies being developed. Our neurological team has also started to diagnose and treat neurological immune diseases and has achieved significant treatment outcomes.

(F) Talent training

In the past few years, more than ten pediatric neurology specialists have been trained with limited manpower. We hope to continue providing training for pediatric neurology sub-specialists in Taiwan and offer talent training for countries with inadequate medical resources.