Sandipan Pati, MD, describes himself as a take-action kind of person. And it’s that insatiable desire to make a difference that led him to a career in medicine. 

He’s energized by helping people with epilepsy, a condition characterized by recurring seizures that are triggered by surges of electrical activity in the brain. Pati says epilepsy care is a field where compassion combined with quick thinking can drastically improve lives.

Pati, an M Health Fairview neurologist, became the director of the University of Minnesota Comprehensive Epilepsy Program in 2024. He’s on a mission to combine medical data, innovative technology, and new therapies into a one-stop shop for personalized epilepsy care.

It’s a model he calls “the three D’s of epilepsy care.”

What are the three D’s, and how do they inform your practice?  

Data, devices, and drugs. We have all this data—clinical notes, imaging, brain waves—that when we put it together, we have a much clearer picture of what’s happening inside a person’s brain. Then there are devices: wearable devices, like a watch that monitors seizures, and implanted devices that record a person’s brain waves. These tell us more about how the person is doing on a daily basis. And then by drugs I mean the next-generation therapies, including cellular therapies, which have shown promise in treating epilepsy. 

When we combine all three D’s in our treatment plan, we can create a personalized therapy for any patient.

What do you want people to know about the epilepsy program?

That our epilepsy care goes beyond treating seizures. We want to also look at things like sleep, depression, all of the other conditions that can appear alongside seizures. In other words, how do we treat each patient as a whole person? How can we look at different drug interactions? How can we tailor surgical therapy to each patient? How should we address a patient’s sleep? It’s a 360-degree approach.

In 1964, the University’s epilepsy program became the first comprehensive epilepsy center in the country. With that history in mind, what does the future of the center look like to you?

There are three key things. The first is world-class clinical care. Our primary job is to provide evidence-based medicine that is tailored to each person.

Next, we need to have a good research enterprise to continue to learn about this condition. We need to make sure that we work together with pharmaceutical companies, device companies, industry partners, and the government to translate our discoveries into care.

Finally, we need to train the next generation of physicians. We need to leave a legacy now, so [future physicians] can be successful in their practice.