EEG based automated seizure detection - A survey of medical professionals.

Diagnosing and managing seizures presents substantial challenges for clinicians caring for patients with epilepsy. Although machine learning (ML) has been proposed for automated seizure detection using EEG data, there is little evidence of these technologies being broadly adopted in clinical practice. Moreover, there is a noticeable lack of surveys investigating this topic from the perspective of medical practitioners, which limits the understanding of the obstacles for the development of effective automated seizure detection. Besides the issue of generalisability and replicability seen in a small amount of studies, obstacles to the adoption of automated seizure detection remain largely unknown. To understand the obstacles preventing the application of seizure detection tools in clinical practice, we conducted a survey targeting medical professionals involved in the management of epilepsy. Our study aimed to gather insights on various factors such as the clinical utility, professional sentiment, benchmark requirements, and perceived barriers associated with the use of automated seizure detection tools. Our key findings are: I) The minimum acceptable sensitivity reported by most of our respondents (80%) seems achievable based on studies reported from most currently available ML-based EEG seizure detection algorithms, but replication studies often fail to meet this minimum. II) Respondents are receptive to the adoption of ML seizure detection tools and willing to spend time in training. III) The top three barriers for usage of such tools in clinical practice are related to availability, lack of training, and the blackbox nature of ML algorithms. Based on our findings, we developed a guide that can serve as a basis for developing ML-based seizure detection tools that meet the requirements of medical professionals, and foster the integration of these tools into clinical practice.

Estimating Patient-Level Uncertainty in Seizure Detection Using Group-Specific Out-of-Distribution Detection Technique.

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder affecting around 1% of the global population, characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Accurate diagnosis and treatment are crucial for reducing mortality rates. Recent advancements in machine learning (ML) algorithms have shown potential in aiding clinicians with seizure detection in electroencephalography (EEG) data. However, these algorithms face significant challenges due to the patient-specific variability in seizure patterns and the limited availability of high-quality EEG data for training, causing erratic predictions. These erratic predictions are harmful, especially for high-stake domains in healthcare, negatively affecting patients. Therefore, ensuring safety in AI is of the utmost importance. In this study, we propose a novel ensemble method for uncertainty quantification to identify patients with low-confidence predictions in ML-based seizure detection algorithms. Our approach aims to mitigate high-risk predictions in previously unseen seizure patients, thereby enhancing the robustness of existing seizure detection algorithms. Additionally, our method can be implemented with most of the deep learning (DL) models. We evaluated the proposed method against established uncertainty detection techniques, demonstrating its effectiveness in identifying patients for whom the model's predictions are less certain. Our proposed method managed to achieve 87%, 89% and 75% in accuracy, specificity and sensitivity, respectively. This study represents a novel attempt to improve the reliability and robustness of DL algorithms in the domain of seizure detection. This study underscores the value of integrating uncertainty quantification into ML algorithms for seizure detection, offering clinicians a practical tool to gauge the applicability of ML models for individual patients.

EEG datasets for seizure detection and prediction- A review.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) datasets from epilepsy patients have been used to develop seizure detection and prediction algorithms using machine learning (ML) techniques with the aim of implementing the learned model in a device. However, the format and structure of publicly available datasets are different from each other, and there is a lack of guidelines on the use of these datasets. This impacts the generatability, generalizability, and reproducibility of the results and findings produced by the studies. In this narrative review, we compiled and compared the different characteristics of the publicly available EEG datasets that are commonly used to develop seizure detection and prediction algorithms. We investigated the advantages and limitations of the characteristics of the EEG datasets. Based on our study, we identified 17 characteristics that make the EEG datasets unique from each other. We also briefly looked into how certain characteristics of the publicly available datasets affect the performance and outcome of a study, as well as the influences it has on the choice of ML techniques and preprocessing steps required to develop seizure detection and prediction algorithms. In conclusion, this study provides a guideline on the choice of publicly available EEG datasets to both clinicians and scientists working to develop a reproducible, generalizable, and effective seizure detection and prediction algorithm.