Continuous EEG monitoring in clinical practice and hospital infrastructure

• Continuous EEG (cEEG) monitoring practice and infrastructure in Canadian hospitals is decision-relevant for EEG-based BCI and clinical neurophysiology deployment (Neurology, operational focus).^{1 1}

Gardner updates

• Continuous EEG monitoring practice and infrastructure in Canadian hospitals are decision-relevant for EEG-based BCI and clinical neurophysiology deployment (Neurology). ¹

Weekly enrichment (2026-07-20)

• The source is a nationwide cross-sectional survey of continuous EEG (cEEG) practice in Canadian adult hospitals (Niznick, Tang, Kromm, McCredie and colleagues), published in Neurology: Clinical Practice, distributed to EEG laboratory directors and physicians who interpret cEEGs.^{2 3}
• The survey frames cEEG as the gold standard for detecting nonconvulsive seizures and nonconvulsive status epilepticus in critically ill patients, noting nonconvulsive status epilepticus occurs in roughly 8%–10% of patients with unexplained coma.²
• A quantitative rationale for cEEG: continuous recording identifies more than twice as many seizures as a single 30-minute routine EEG, so limited access has direct diagnostic consequences.²
• Of 1,267 adult hospitals surveyed, only 92 hospital networks (about 9%) had an EEG laboratory, and just 24 were flagged as potentially offering cEEG; 22 institutions responded (92% response rate).²
• Only 19 hospital networks reported cEEG availability, equal to about 2% of Canadian hospitals, and even among tertiary care centers only about 68% offered cEEG.²
• Geographic inequities were stark: three provinces and all three territories lacked cEEG access entirely, a gap detailed further in the companion analysis on inequitable critical-care cEEG coverage in Canada.^{2 4}
• Reported operational barriers included insufficient EEG technologist coverage and prolonged processing times for 24-hour recordings; most institutions lacked standardized guidelines, could not perform new cEEG hookups after regular work hours, and had no abbreviated-montage fallback when cEEG was unavailable.²
• The authors conclude most Canadian hospitals do not meet guideline standards for cEEG use and call for systemic changes, underscoring that clinical EEG infrastructure and technologist staffing gate real-world deployment of EEG-based monitoring and BCI/neurophysiology workflows.²

Footnotes

1. https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiakFVX3lxTE1XRTJ2c3Qxb3BHNzJ2UldBY2tpRnJHN3oxaXlCU3ZkNnFLTjVsS3BucGFFVy0zUVdHeWZqYTExZ2pKSVM2SVIyUHlvRDZsMlpKSlFmMGQ2Tk83Y0s2RGNFS1FicnpicHc2alE?oc=5 ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. https://doi.org/10.1212/cpj.0000000000200522 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40860178/ ↩

4. https://doi.org/10.1212/cpj.0000000000200530 ↩