Biographical Sketch
Wesley T. Kerr, MD, PhD’s research focuses on how data and statistics can be used to make better medical decisions. As a young clinician-scientist, he chose to focus his research career on database building, data processing and machine learning applied to health data to address important clinical challenges. The first clinical challenge was the question of “are these events epileptic seizures?” by building a database of more that 1500 patients with video-EEG diagnosed events. Dr. Kerr developed computer-aided diagnostic tools based on machine learning statistics to differentiate between patients with epileptic and functional seizures, otherwise known as psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES), using clinical information, EEG, FDG-PET and MRI. His Functional Seizures Likelihood Score (FSLS) is the only clinical score to differentiate between epilepsy and functional seizures that has been validated both prospectively and at an external center.
As Dr. Kerr’s clinical career has progressed, he’s become passionate about using data and statistics to improve patient care for those with epilepsy. Through collaborations with others, he’s been the statistical author or co-author on manuscripts re-analyzing prior clinical trials for epilepsy, evaluating barriers to surgical evaluation for medication resistant epilepsy, and risk factors for Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). Dr. Kerr has been awarded two grants to re-analyze up to 34 clinical trials for epilepsy using a time-to-event design.
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
- 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, 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.
