Frontlines with Frontera

Frontlines with Frontera is a NeurologyLive podcast hosted by Jennifer Frontera, MD, professor of neurology at NYU Langone Health. Built for clinicians, the series delivers practical, evidence-driven conversations on high-stakes decision-making in neurocritical care and acute neurology, featuring expert insights from leaders across the field.In part 2 of this 2-part episode of Frontlines with Frontera, host Jennifer Frontera, MD, professor of neurology at NYU Langone Health, continues her conversation with Brian Edlow, MD, vice chair of research in neurology at Mass General Brigham and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, focusing on the clinical implications of diagnosing covert consciousness. The discussion explores how this diagnosis may influence treatment decisions, including the use of neurostimulants, rehabilitation strategies, and emerging neurotechnologies such as brain-computer interfaces and deep brain stimulation. Edlow also examines the challenges of patient selection, ethical considerations surrounding invasive interventions, and the limitations of current therapeutic approaches. The episode concludes with a forward-looking perspective on advances in diagnostics, personalized brain mapping, and novel neuromodulation strategies that may reshape care for patients with disorders of consciousness.Episode Breakdown:  0:00–3:40 – Clinical impact of diagnosis on care decisions 3:40–7:20 – Rehabilitation challenges and cognitive-motor dissociation 7:20–11:30 – Brain-computer interfaces: noninvasive vs invasive approaches 11:30–15:45 – Ethical considerations and patient selection for intervention 15:45–19:30 – Neurostimulation strategies: DBS, TMS, and emerging data 19:30–23:10 – Patient experience, quality of life, and uncertainty 23:10–26:30 – Future directions: diagnostics, mapping, and therapeutics Thanks for listening to the NeurologyLive® Frontlines with Frontera podcast. To support the show, be sure to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. For more neurology news and expert-driven content, visit neurologylive.com.

Frontlines with Frontera is a NeurologyLive podcast hosted by Jennifer Frontera, MD, professor of neurology at NYU Langone Health. Built for clinicians, the series delivers practical, evidence-driven conversations on high-stakes decision-making in neurocritical care and acute neurology, featuring expert insights from leaders across the field.In part 1 of this 2-part episode of Frontlines with Frontera, host Jennifer Frontera, MD—professor of neurology at NYU Langone Health and neurocritical care specialist—speaks with Brian Edlow, MD, vice chair of research in neurology at Mass General Brigham and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, about the evolving science of consciousness in brain-injured patients. The discussion highlights how clinicians assess wakefulness and awareness, the emergence of covert consciousness detected through advanced EEG and fMRI, and its presence across acute and chronic settings. Edlow also reviews the prognostic implications of these findings in the ICU, the uncertainty surrounding neurologic recovery, and the influence of clinician communication on goals-of-care decisions, while introducing the potential role of multimodal testing and AI-driven models in improving prognostication. (Part 2 will further explore implementation challenges and future directions.)Episode Breakdown:  0:00–3:20 – Defining consciousness: wakefulness vs awareness 3:20–7:50 – Covert consciousness: history and prevalence 7:50–12:05 – Prognostic implications and ICU decision-making 12:05–17:10 – Multimodal testing and AI-driven prognostication 17:10–19:30 – Practical EEG/fMRI implementation strategies 19:30–24:20 – Limitations: false negatives and interpretation 24:20–28:15 – Translating positive findings to clinical outcomes Thanks for listening to the NeurologyLive® Frontlines with Frontera podcast. To support the show, be sure to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. For more neurology news and expert-driven content, visit neurologylive.com.

Welcome to the Frontlines with Frontera podcast. A clinician-focused podcast blending education, curiosity, and real-world insights across the spectrum of neurologic practice. In this initial episode, host Jennifer Frontera, MD, is joined by Sahar Zafar, MD, associate professor of neurology at Mass General Brigham and vice chair of quality, to discuss the expanding role of artificial intelligence (AI) in neurocritical care. The conversation explores how large-scale EEG data, electronic health records, and advanced causal modeling can be leveraged to address longstanding gaps in seizure management, prognostication, and trial design. In addition, Zafar outlines how AI-driven approaches are being used to annotate neurophysiologic data at scale, quantify seizure burden, and extract clinically meaningful outcomes from unstructured records. Together, they examine the challenges of model validation, generalizability across health systems, and how these tools may ultimately inform more precise, data-driven treatment strategies in the neuro ICU.Episode Breakdown:  1:30 – Why evidence gaps and practice variation persist in neurocritical seizure management 4:50 – How AI and real-world data can address limitations of traditional clinical trials 8:10 – Using EEG-based AI models to quantify seizure burden and predict outcomes  10:40 – Applying NLP and large language models to extract meaningful data from EHRs 21:20 – Challenges of model validation, portability, and multicenter collaboration 26:20 – Future applications of AI for seizure prophylaxis, multimodal monitoring, and trial design Thanks for listening to the NeurologyLive® Frontlines with Frontera podcast. To support the show, be sure to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. For more neurology news and expert-driven content, visit neurologylive.com.