Organizing health care for people with seizures and epilepsy.

The day-to-day responsibilities of managing seizures and epilepsy fall most heavily on patients and their families. Unfortunately, health care services in the United States are not organized to identify, diagnose, and treat people with seizures effectively nor are they delivered in such a way that patients and their families can engage in a positive, collaborative relationship with health care providers. This article describes a model of chronic illness care as applied to seizures and epilepsy, that is, how care should be structured to help people with seizures live as well as possible.