Biographical Sketch
Wesley T. Kerr, MD, PhD is an early career clinical epileptologist-biostatistician. His mission is to assist clinicians, including himself, make better medical decisions. Clinically, he cares for people with seizures not adequately treated with antiseizure medications, including functional (nonepileptic) seizures and medication-resistant epilepsy. He is the Interim Director of the UPMC Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) Program and the lead neurologist for functional (nonepileptic) seizures. His research identifies and tries to address meaningful clinical challenges using biostatistical techniques, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, applied to electronic health records and claims databases. In addition, his research aims to enable development of novel treatments for seizures through improving clinical trial design, analysis, and recruitment. He is an Associate Editor of Epilepsia, the highest impact journal for epilepsy.
Education & Training
- Fellowship, University of Michigan, Epilepsy
- Residency, University of California (LA), Neurology
- Internship, Eisenhower Health (Rancho Mirage), Internal Medicine
- MD, PhD, University of California (LA), Medicine & Biomathematics
- BA, University of Pennsylvania
Board Certifications
- American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology: Epilepsy
- American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology: Neurology
Professional Organization Memberships
- Epilepsy Study Consortium
- American Epilepsy Society
- American Academy of Neurology
- Founding Member, Functional Neurological Disease Society
Honors & Awards
- Susan S. Spencer Scholarship, American Academy of Neurology, 2023
- Best Junior Poster Award, Functional Neurological Disorder Society, 2022
- May Liang & James Lintott Scholarship, Epilepsy Foundation Pipeline Conference, 2022
- Best Clinical Fellow Poster Award, Neuroscience Day, University of Michigan, 2022
- Excellence in Teaching with Humanism Residents & Fellows Award, 2021
- Young Investigator Award, American Epilepsy Society, 2019
- Bannister Award for Fastest Door-to-Needle Time for tPA, UCLA, 2019
- Collin's Day, Best Basic Neuroscience Poster Award, UCLA, 2019
- Jackie Lee Houston Shining Star Nominee, Eisenhower Health, 2018
Selected Recent Publications
Kerr WT, McFarlane KN, Pucci GF, Carns DR, Israel A, Vighetti L, Pennell P, Stern JM, Xia Z, Wang Y. Supervised machine learning compared to large language models for identifying functional seizures from medical records. Epilepsia. 2025. PMID 39960122.
Kerr WT, Kok N, Reddy AS, McFarlane KN, Stern JM, Pennell PB, Stacey WC, French JA. Demonstration of group- and individual-level efficacy using time-to-event designs for clinical trials of antiseizure medications. Neurology. 2024. PMID 39052963.
Kerr WT, Patterson EH, O’Sullivan IM, Horbatch FJ, Darpel KA, Patel PS, Robinson-Mayer N, Winder GS, Beimer NJ. Elevated mortality rate in patients with functional seizures after diagnosis and referral. Neurology: Clinical Practice. 2024. PMID 38223352.
Kerr WT, Reddy AS, Seo S, Kok N, Stacey WC, Stern JM, Pennell PB, French JA. Increasing challenges to trial recruitment and conduct over time. Epilepsia. 2023. PMID 37440282.
Kerr WT, Brandt C, Ngo LY, Patten A, Cheng JY, Kramer L, French JA. Time to exceed pre-randomization monthly seizure count for perampanel in participants with primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures: A potential clinical end point. Epilepsia. 2022 Nov;63(11):2994-3004. doi: 10.1111/epi.17411. Epub 2022 Sep 30. PMID: 36106379; PMCID: PMC9828687.
Kerr WT, Janio EA, Chau AM, Braesch CT, Le JM, Hori JM, Patel AB, Gallardo NL, Allas CH, Karimi AH, Dubey I, Sreenivasan SS, Bauirjan J, Hwang ES, Davis EC, D'Ambrosio SR, Al Banna M, Mazumder R, Wu T, DeCant ZA, Gibbs MG, Chang E, Zhang X, Cho AY, Beimer NJ, Engel J Jr, Cohen MS, Stern JM. Objective score from initial interview identifies patients with probable dissociative seizures. Epilepsy Behav. 2020 Dec;113:107525. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2020.107525. Epub 2020 Nov 13. PMID: 33197798; PMCID: PMC7736162.
Weschler R, Vossler DG, Kerr WT, Stern S, Wade CT, Rosenfeld WE. Predictors of achievement of response with cenobamate; post-hoc analysis of subset of patients from a phase 3, multicenter, open-label safety study. American Epilepsy Society. Nashville, TN, USA. December 2022.
Stern S, Weschler R, Kerr WT, Wade CT, Vossler DG, Rosenfeld WE. Predictors of sustainability of response with cenobamate: post-hoc analysis of a subset of patients from a phase 3, multicenter, open-label safety study. American Epilepsy Society. Nashville, TV, USA. December 2022.
