Doctor battling epilepsy helps bring life-saving technology to the Cincinnati-area hospitals

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - A local doctor battling epilepsy is helping other scientists and inventors turn their innovative ideas into startup companies used in academic and medical institutions in Cincinnati to help save lives.

Technology leading to medical advancements often passes through to the Director of Life Sciences at Cincy Tech and Neurologist Dr. Christin Godale, who looks at therapeutic devices, digital health, and diagnostic opportunities.

One of the projects she is working on is helping to bring new technology to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital that helps premature babies in the NICU get a life-saving MRI.

“MRIs are usually on the lower level of these hospital systems because they’re really heavy, and you know to transport a premature baby outside of a NICU is incredibly dangerous, so we don’t want to do that. But medical imaging has created a brand new NICU or premature baby MRI. This could be placed in these very small areas,” Dr. Godale said.

Her curiosity for neuroscience started when she was a girl battling the disease.

She says she had a lot of questions for the doctor about why she was having seizures after staying in the hospital for three months.

”I wanted to understand what was going on and this specific neurologist. He actually brought in all of his medical school textbooks and just let me read them while I was hospitalized, and it kind of cultivated this procured interest in this specific area,” Dr. Godale said.

Dr. Godale says when she was little, she had roughly 30 seizures per day.

“There was a time in my life when I really couldn’t do anything,” Dr. Godale said.

She has since been able to manage her epilepsy and fight her way out of the hospital bed to battle against illnesses through technology. Dr. Godale says she is proud of what she has accomplished.

”When I’m looking back, I can’t believe I’m here right now. And honestly, I’m really just blessed to have the privilege to be in this type of position. Especially as a person that has a history of epilepsy, I always like to encourage other people with epilepsy, you know, not to let anyone or anything tell it’s not possible,” Dr. Godale said.

She says her ultimate goal is to continue to work with more graduate students and create more opportunities for them.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2023 WXIX. All rights reserved.