Objective: Media coverage of disorders and medical advancements can impact public perception regarding the riskiness, effectiveness and accessibility of treatment options. We studied that coverage for epilepsy with a focus on surgical interventions and emerging neurotechnologies.Methods: Epilepsy-related, English language articles published through 2019 were retrieved from online international news media with a circulation of 80,000 or above. We used directed content analysis of news articles to code content into a priori categories both to identify salient themes and to characterize their valence.Results: 146 unique articles matched our search terms. Overall, there was a steady increase in epilepsy reporting over time, with a majority of articles published with a positive tone. Neuromodulation was the focus of over 50% of all the articles in the time points analyzed. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) were discussed more prominently than other types of neurotechnological interventions. VNS was the neurotechnological focus in 39% of the pediatric articles; resective surgery was the focus in 34% of adult articles. Access, support and epilepsy literacy were the central themes in the context of ethical, legal and social issues.Significance: News media can influence the trust that the public places in science and medicine, and, by extension, influences health policy. As innovations in neurotechnology for epilepsy emerge, understanding of individual and societal values is essential to their beneficial evolution and translation to care.

The SOCRAT can be used to analyse how different risk factors contribute to the overall risk of concussion. The tool may be tailored to organizations to provide: (1) an RPN for each risk factor and (2) an overall RPN that takes into account all the risk factors. Further work is needed to validate the tool based on real data.