It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Professor W. Allen Hauser, MD, a giant in the epidemiology of epilepsy. As Professor of Neurology and Epidemiology at Columbia University he taught, carried out pioneer neuro-epidemiological research and treated people with epilepsy during the past 50 years. His seminal contributions revolutionized our understanding of epidemiology and risk factors of epilepsy and formed the foundation for the ILAE operational classification of the disease.
Allen’s work on epilepsy began almost 60 years ago, in 1968, as a fellow in Clinical Neurophysiology at the Mayo Clinic. His first epilepsy-related publications in the 70’s, based on population-based studies, were eye-opening and presented an entirely different picture of epilepsy than clinically perceived at the time: on incidence and prevalence by seizure type, age and sex, prognosis for seizure remission in people with epilepsy, mortality of people with epilepsy, and febrile seizure frequency and prognosis. His ground-breaking papers showed that the incidence of seizures and epilepsies in older adults is very high.
Allen’s research papers in the 80’s included a pioneering report on seizure recurrence following a first unprovoked seizure, unravelling the low risk for further seizures (30-40%) in people with a first unprovoked seizure. He published the first study demonstrating high risk of epilepsy among people with Alzheimer’s disease raising questions regarding Alzheimer diagnostic criteria at that time. Additional excellent studies addressed the association of alcohol and recreational substance use and epilepsy. In the 90’s, his focus included innovative studies and quantification of risk for epilepsy for conditions such as stroke, brain trauma, CNS infection and. subarachnoid hemorrhage, as well as epidemiologic studies of status epilepticus that provided a comprehensive assessment of the incidence and prognosis of status epilepticus.
His studies after the turn of the 21st century continued to be remarkable with the publication of comprehensive, population-based incidence and case-controlled studies of epilepsy from Iceland. The incidence of epilepsy and epilepsy syndromes was reported for the total population; factors frequently thought to be consequences of epilepsy (depression, migraine, ADHD) were documented as actually antecedents suggesting a bidirectional association. He was a major contributor to clinical trials of neurocysticercosis treatment; many excellent descriptive epidemiologic studies reporting basic data on incidence, prevalence, fertility, pregnancy complications in many diverse regions of the world.
Allen published over 370 peer-reviewed, PubMed referenced publications, including in the most prestigious and highly-ranked scientific journals; his H-index was 111. He also contributed to over 150 books, guiding generations of epilepsy professionals.
Allen was the 1994 American Epilepsy Society (AES) Lennox lecturer and recipient of the AES Clinical research award (2001), the Epilepsy Ambassador Award from the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE) (1992) and the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the ILAE/IBE.
He has served on numerous committees for the International League Against Epilepsy and the International Bureau for Epilepsy including: Program Committee, Epilepsy International Symposium (1989), ILAE/IBE Commission on Epidemiology (1991-1997 , Vice Chairman), IBE Commission on Insurance (1991-1998), Advisory Committee, RESt-1- European Study Group For Risk of Morbidity and Accidents In People With Epilepsy (1992-2001), the ILAE Task Force on Classification (1997-2001), the Commission on the Burden of Epilepsy (1998-2002). He was the Chair of the Subcommission on Epidemiology, on the ILAE Commission on Epidemiology for more than 13 years (1998—2011) and member of the ILAE taskforce on intractability. He organized a taskforce on mortality (2005) and acute symptomatic seizures (2007). He has lectured at numerous ILAE Congresses and educational events.
Professor Hauser was a remarkably effective mentor; he supervised over 70 PhD, masters and post-doc students. He felt his most important accomplishment was the mentoring of the next generation of scientists who became “stars”, making substantial contributions in the field of epilepsy. The giant “tree” of his mentees from many countries from all over the world, designed by Dale Hesdorffer at the time of his “retirement” from Columbia, was truly flourishing with more than 100 well-known names of eminent persons in clinical and epidemiological studies in epilepsy, and many more leaders in epilepsy have been fortunate to learn from him since then.
We express our deep condolences to his wife Bonnie and his children.
When Professor Hauser received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the ILAE, an eminent colleague said: “Allen is the epidemiology of epilepsy.” Indeed, his legacy will continue to guide the field for decades to come.
Alla Guekht, Nathalie Jette, Solomon Moshé