Can anyone suggest an AE specialist in Tennessee?

[Harper1]

This is a very specific question, but worth a shot: does anyone on here get pediatric encephalitis treatment in Tennessee? Where do you go and who is your physician?

We’re flexible about city hospital location (Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, etc.). We’re planning a move and currently researching options for our 5 year old.

Atlanta and other nearby cities also possible options, if drivable from TN.

Many thanks in advance.

[kitnkaboodle]

Hey, Harper. I’m over in Colorado, but I did a little research on this for you. Before E, I was a PhD student, so the status and structure of academic and medical systems are familiar to me.

It looks like the children’s hospital at Vanderbilt is ranked highest in the state and region. I checked the doctors/faculty in the pediatric neurology unit ( childrenshospitalvanderbilt... ). It looks there are several neurologists with sub-specialities in movement disorders, epilepsy, and other conditions that can be secondary to E.

I think this doctor seems promising ( childrenshospitalvanderbilt... ). She’s the only one with a pediatric neuro-immunology focus, and she has very high ratings. She is relatively new to her position as attending (~5 years), but she was recruited out of the Vanderbilt child neurology and neuro-immunology fellowship programs, meaning that she was successful enough to stay on as faculty.

When searching, focus on medical research institutions, usually affiliated with university systems. “Normal” hospitals typically don’t have the sub-specialities necessary for proper E treatment and recovery. As I’m sure you know, AE patients need a neuro-immunologist, not simply a neurologist. Mine is at University of Colorado - Anschutz in Denver, and I was on a crazy diagnostic roller coaster before meeting her.

Let me know if you have any more questions. I hope this helps, and best wishes for your move!

Take care,

Kit

[Harper1 in reply to kitnkaboodle]

Awww, thank you, Kit, for taking the time on our behalf. Yes, it looks like the major children’s hospital in Nashville, associated with Vanderbilt, is our best option.

And thanks for finding their only (listed?) neuro-immunologist.

Am researching further, but this is a good jumping-off point.

[kitnkaboodle in reply to Harper1]

You’re welcome! I hope it all works out for you and your family.

I also thought it was odd that she was the only one with a neuro-immunology sub-speciality listed.

Most doctors at research hospitals also have programs of research; they publish papers in medical journals about their work. You could check Google Scholar for any of these Vanderbilt pediatric neurologists and see if any of their papers are related to AE.

Another way to approach it: I just did a quick search on Google Scholar including key words like “Vanderbilt,” “autoimmune encephalitis,” and “pediatric neurology.” This one of the papers the search returned: frontiersin.org/articles/10...

I checked the authors’ affiliations and did a separate search for Catherine Fuchs: search.vanderbilthealth.com...

She’s in the psychiatry department rather than pediatric neurology, but she has been recently contributing to research on AE in children and teens. Maybe having multiple Vanderbilt physicians—one in pediatric psychiatry and one in pediatric neurology—would be useful for your son.

This is just another way for you to do more research on Vanderbilt. Not sure if you already know about these tricks with scientific article searches, but I hope it helps!