In August 2025, UAB will celebrate the opening of a new Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU), a facility that will more than double patient capacity, increase patient access to services, and enhance research and training opportunities.
The new EMU is located in the new UAB Rehabilitation Pavilion, a 350,000-square-foot space that includes a focus on neurorehabilitation. The EMU will be located on one floor of the UAB Rehabilitation Pavilion housing 28 hospital beds.
Sixteen of these will initially be hard-wired and assigned to the EMU service, with a plan to eventually grow the service to utilize all 28 beds for monitoring of patients with seizure disorders. In comparison, the current EMU at UAB has 10 beds designated for this purpose. The move to the new space will both expand the epilepsy surgery volume and significantly increase the number of patients treated with resections or device implantations (DBS, RNS, VNS).
“We were fortunate with the timing of the IRF and that there was room in the new building available for the EMU,” said Jerzy Szaflarski, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director of the Division of Epilepsy in the UAB Department of Neurology. “This new EMU will allow us to double and potentially triple the number of patients evaluated each year and meet the growing demands.”
According to Szaflarski, the current EMU was established more than 40 years ago by R. Edward Faught, Jr., M.D., founding director of the UAB Epilepsy Center. After renovations and upgrades to the old space over the years, Faught realized a need for a larger facility to support patients with seizure disorders and actively lobbied for additional beds and a new location.
“When I joined UAB in 2012, I put forth the same request – to increase the number of EMU beds to better meet the needs of patients with seizure disorders in Alabama,” Szaflarski said. “With the support of the leadership of the Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery, we have developed a plan for the new unit that will be more than twice the size of the current one."
One of the most significant aspects of the new EMU is that it will increase access to care for patients with seizure disorders. According to Szaflarski, of the approximately 54,000 patients with seizure disorders in Alabama, many are waiting six or more months for an evaluation. UAB is one of only three Level 4 Epilepsy Centers in the state certified by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers. The Division is in the process of hiring five-to-six additional faculty over the next two-to-three years to better meet these demands.
“Long-term, this will result in better patient access, better care, more research, and increased educational opportunities to train the next generation of care providers,” Szaflarski said.
Jennifer DeWolfe, D.O., professor in the Department of Neurology and director of the UAB Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, said another benefit of the new space involves an improved ability to monitor patients.
“Besides the welcome increased access to care, I am really excited about the new EMU's enhanced quality of monitoring with the upgrade to two cameras per room, allowing simultaneous close-up and whole body views of the patient,” DeWolfe said. “The new equipment also includes technological tools that enhance data analysis and seizure localization.”
The UAB Medicine Rehabilitation Pavilion will recognize its grand opening on Monday, Aug. 18, with the first patients slated to be admitted to the new EMU on Thursday, Aug. 21.
“It is an exciting change,” Szaflarski said. “In one capacity or another, all epilepsy providers have been working on this transition for the last few years. From lobbying to creating plans and designs, to improving access, we have all been involved in this process.”