Pedro Viana of King’s College London Receives NIHR Development and Skills Enhancement Award for Epilepsy Research

Dr Pedro Viana has been awarded the NIHR Development and Skills Enhancement (DSE) Award under the NIHR Academy Strategic Theme Health Data Science. The DSE Award is a postdoctoral-level funding opportunity to support early- to mid-career researchers in gaining specific skills and experience to underpin the next phase of their research careers. The DSE award themes are entrepreneurship and working with industry, clinical knowledge, and health data science.

Dr Pedro Viana is a Clinical Research Fellow at the Department of Basic & Clinical Neuroscience and a Locum Consultant in Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology at the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Pedro Viana
Dr Viana’s DSE award starts in January 2025, supporting his goal to become a multidisciplinary research leader in medical technology development for epilepsy. The funding covers a two-year training programme in Health Data Science and Entrepreneurship which combines theoretical courses, mentoring from IoPPN researchers, research work, and industry partnership with Amber Therapeutics and UNEEG Medical.

Dr Viana’s recent work focuses on the use of subcutaneous EEG for at-home monitoring of epilepsy, which has led to a current multicentre clinical trial. He discovered the technology’s potential to revolutionise epilepsy care, by objectively monitoring seizure occurrence (replacing inaccurate patient-reported diaries), providing real-time seizure alerts or forecasting future seizures, ultimately improving clinical management, preventing seizure-related harms (including deaths) and saving costs to health services.

I am extremely grateful for the NIHR DSE Award and for my mentors and collaborators supporting my goal of becoming a research leader in epilepsy medical technology. This award will enable me to gain knowledge to develop personalised seizure forecasting models and create an interventional study, which strengthen the use of this technology and improve clinical outcomes.

Dr Pedro Viana