History of Minnesota Epilepsy Group, PA

By John Gates, MD

Minnesota Epilepsy Group, PA® was established by John R. Gates, MD at United Hospital, upon the court supervised dissolution of the original MINCEP corporation, the assets of which were divided. Dr. Gates established the Minnesota Epilepsy Group, PA’° inpatient program in 1990. Dr. Frank Ritter was the first physician to join Dr. Gates in the new endeavor where he continued to see epilepsy pediatric patients under aegis of Minnesota Epilepsy Group, PA® at Gillette Children’s Healthcare Hospital.

Patients were seen for a period of approximately six weeks on station 8900, the general orthopaed ic/neurology floor until station 7900 was renovated for the 10-bed adult epilepsy unit. In the meantime, Dr. Ritter continued seeing pediatric patients at Gillette Children’s Hospital until station 7940, another 10-bed unit at United Hospital in collaboration with and under the supervision of Children’s Hospital-St. Paul was opened approximately one year later.

Dr. Michael Frost and Dr. Ronald Spiegel both joined the group in 1991. Dr. Allan Ingenito from the Minneapolis Clinic, a former fellow under Dr. Gates at the MINCEP program, assisted with the adult program until Dr. Patricia Penovich joined the group in 1 992. Dr. Gerald Moriarty joined the group in 1993, moving to the University of Minnesota in 2002.

A clinical neurophysiology/epilepsy fellowship was established in collaboration with the Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota. Beginning in 1981, while still MINCEP and continuing from 1990, a series of fellows were trained by the physicians of Minnesota Epilepsy Group, including Miguel Fiol, Halbert Corwin, Ruy Mireles, William Rosenfield, Allan Ingenito, Cynthia Rask, Raul Cruz-Rodrigues, Michele Metrick, Victor Biton, Balbir Singh, Elias Olafson, Gerald Moriarty, Willis Courtney, Luciano De Paola, Valia Logothetes, Ash Sharif, Masood Ghazali, Inna Vaisleib, Shani Norbert, Deanna Dickens, Raluca Banica-Wolters, Jason Doescher, and El-Hadi Moderres.

The original Minnesota Epilepsy Group, PA’ staff consisted of approximately 26 individuals. Within two years the staff had grown to 76 and by 2004 is at 100. This includes 32 EEG technologists/monitoring techs, five owner physicians, two fellows, six PhD psychologists and neuropsychologist, 14 nurse clinicians, and assorted other administrative and support staff.

The American Epilepsy Society, The American Academy of Neurology and other international epilepsy and neuropsychology meetings are attended by the Minnesota Epilepsy Group physicians and PhDs, in collaboration with the nursing and support staff. On the average, 700 patients with epilepsy are treated on the two inpatient units on an annual basis, with over 3000 outpatient clinical visits per year. The practice is restricted to diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy, with ongoing activity in clinical research studies in antiepileptic medications and devices, and the psychological aspects of epilepsy. All of our physicians are affiliated with the University of Minnesota, Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics.