Nationally Recognized Expert Joins Lurie Children’s as Head of Epilepsy Program

October 01, 2020

Joyce Wu, MD, will start at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago on October 1 as the Section Head of the Epilepsy Program in the Division of Neurology. She also will be the Lorna S. and James P. Langdon Chair in Pediatric Epilepsy. She is nationally recognized for her expertise and research in tuberous sclerosis complex -- an inherited disease, which affects the brain, heart, kidney, lung and skin, and is associated with epilepsy and developmental disorders such as autism. Dr. Wu also is well-known for her research in using novel EEG technology to detect high frequency oscillations (biomarkers in childhood epilepsy) to improve the outcome of epilepsy surgery.

“Dr. Wu will help make Lurie Children’s the premier program nationally for pediatric epilepsy,” says Leon G. Epstein, MD, Head of the Division of Neurology at Lurie Children’s. “We also anticipate that her leadership and highly specialized expertise will foster synergistic growth in the Lurie Children’s epilepsy surgery program.”

Dr. Wu comes from Mattel Children’s Hospital at University of California Los Angeles where she was the Founder and Director of Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Program, and prior to that, Medical Director of Pediatric Epilepsy Monitoring.

Dr. Wu received her MD with honors from the New York University School of Medicine. She completed her internship and residency in pediatrics at Boston City Hospital, followed by residency in pediatric neurology at the Floating Hospital (Tufts) New England Medical Center in Boston, and fellowship in pediatric epilepsy/clinical neurophysiology at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital. Throughout her career, she has been invited to lecture across the country and internationally, and her research has resulted in over 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She currently is the Chair-Elect for the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance Clinical Research Consortium.

“We are very excited to welcome a clinician and researcher of Dr. Wu’s caliber to Lurie Children’s,” says Matthew M. Davis, MD, MAPP, Chair of the Department of Medicine at Lurie Children’s and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We also thank Dr. Linda Laux for the strong interim leadership she has provided to the Epilepsy Program over the past few years and her assistance in the recruitment of Dr. Wu.”

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is ranked as one of the nation’s top children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. It is the pediatric training program for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Last year, the hospital served more than 220,000 children from 48 states and 49 countries. Lurie Children's Epilepsy Program has been recognized as a Level 4 program by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers (NAEC) in recognition of the high-quality specialized epilepsy care that voluntarily meets all of the NAEC rigorous criteria.