Clinical histories: How they frame thinking about diagnosis and understanding the concept of epilepsy

Dr Bridget MacDonald is a consultant neurologist and supervises postgraduate medical education working between Croydon University and St George's Hospitals in South West London. Her specialist interests are epilepsy, mental health in neurology patients, neuro-oncology, the care of intellectually and multiply disabled adults. She also has an interest in medical humanities and ethics and is treasurer of the Association of Medical Humanities.

Dr Manji trained in medicine at Trinity Hall Cambridge and the Middlesex Hospital qualifying in 1982. After house jobs, he spent three years on the Edinburgh GP training scheme before returning to general medicine and neurology. His neurological training was at the Middlesex Hospital, the National Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital. His MD thesis was on 'The Neurological Complications of HIV’.

After a sabbatical at L'Hopital Kremlin-Bicetre in Paris with Professor Gerard Said, he was appointed Consultant Neurologist at the National Hospital and Ipswich Hospital.

His interests are in neurological infections including tropical neurology and peripheral nerve disorders. He is the Chief author and editor of the Oxford Handbook of Neurology - 20,000 copies have been sold worldwide and the 3rd edition is now in preparation.

Professor Simon Shorvon qualified in medicine from Cambridge University and St Thomas’ Hospital Medical School in 1973. His current affiliation is as honorary consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and emeritus professor of clinical neurology at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Professor Shorvon's past appointments include: chair of the UCL University Department of Clinical Neurology; vice-president of the International League Against Epilepsy; editor-in-chief of Epilepsia; president of the Joint Neurosciences Council of Great Britain; harveian librarian at the Royal College of Physicians; past president of the Clinial Neurosciences section of the RSM.

He has been author of many journal articles, monographs and textbooks. He is currently writing a book on the history of epilepsy in the twentieth century (to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2021).