About

Dr. Jean E Cibula is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Florida College of Medicine. She attended undergraduate and medical school at Case Western Reserve University and completed her residency in general neurology, along with fellowships in clinical neurophysiology and behavioral neurology at the University of Florida. After her residency, she joined the neurology faculty at the University of Kentucky and was in private practice in Columbus, Ohio, before returning to the University of Florida in 2008. Dr. Cibula's clinical focus is on medically refractory epilepsy and surgical treatments for drug-resistant epilepsy. She is also interested in women’s and adolescent issues and the cognitive effects of epilepsy and its treatment. She collaborates with physicians across various services and departments on EEG education, intraoperative cortical mapping for tumors and epilepsy, and provides long-term EEG monitoring in the critical care setting. Her research involvement includes new drug studies for epilepsy and a particular interest in the overlap between behavioral neurology and epilepsy. She has served as a principal investigator on multiple studies and is involved in ongoing collaborations related to EEG education and the adult precision ketogenic diet program. Throughout her career, Dr. Cibula has been recognized with numerous awards, including being named one of the top neurologists in Gainesville by ThreeBestRated.com, receiving the UF Health Physician Recognition Award for Excellence in Patient Care, and being listed among Best Doctors in America. She has also served in leadership roles, including as an officer of the UF College of Medicine Faculty Council and as the medical director for the UFHealth Neurodiagnostic Laboratory.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Psychology
• Anesthesia
• Psychiatry
• Surgery
• Neuroscience
• Computer vision
• Medicine
• Simulation
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• COMPRESSIVE DATA STORAGE FOR LONG-TERM EEG: VALIDATION BY VISUAL ANALYSIS

  Clinical Neurophysiology Practice · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access

  Objectives: Long-term EEG monitoring (LTM) in acute neurology generates massive data volumes. We investigated whether data-analytic techniques could reduce LTM data size yet conserve their visual diagnostic features. Methods: LTM exemplars from 50 patients underwent singular value decomposition (SVD). High-variance SVD components were transformed using discrete cosine transform (DCT), and significant elements run-length encoded. Two regimes were tested: (I) SVD and DCT compression ratio (CR) of 1.7 and 12, and (II) CR of 3.7 and 5.7; each achieved an overall CR of ≈20. Compressed data were reconstructed alongside uncompressed originals, to create a total of 200 recordings that were scored by two blinded reviewers. Scores of original and reconstructed data were statistically analyzed. Results: Score differences between original recordings were smaller than comparisons involving reconstructions using the first regime but did not differ significantly from reconstructions using the second regime. Conclusions: Raw LTM EEG has sufficient redundancy to undergo extreme (20-fold) data compression without compromising visual diagnostic information. A balanced mix of SVD and DCT appears to be a suitable data-analytic pipeline for achieving such compression. Significance: Dimension reduction is a significant goal in managing big biomedical data. Our results suggest a pathway for archival of meaningful representations of entire LTM datasets. The latent space suggests new lines of data-scientific inquiry of the EEG in acute neurological illness.

  PublisherDOI

• Clinical management of seizures in patients with meningiomas: Efficacy of surgical resection for seizure control and patient-tailored postoperative anti-epileptic drug management

  Neuro-Oncology Advances · 2023-05-01 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  Meningiomas are the most common primary intracranial tumor. They are slow growing and often incidentally found tumors that arise from the arachnoid villi. As they grow, they have a greater likelihood of becoming symptomatic with seizures being one of the most clinically significant symptoms. Seizures are more likely to present as a symptom of larger meningiomas and meningiomas that compress cortical areas particularly those in non-skull base locations. These seizures are often managed medically, utilizing the same anti-seizure medications that are used to treat other causes of epilepsy. We discuss common anti-seizure medications used including valproate, phenobarbital, carbamazepine, phenytoin, lacosamide, lamotrigine, levetiracetam and topiramate and their common adverse effects. The goal of pharmacotherapy for seizure control is to maximize seizure control while minimizing the adverse effects of the medication. The decision to provide medical management is dependent on individual seizure history and plans for surgical treatment. Patients who did not require seizure prophylaxis before surgery are commonly prescribed seizure prophylaxis postoperatively. Symptomatic meningiomas not controlled by medical management alone are commonly evaluated for surgical resection. The efficacy of surgical resection in providing seizure freedom is dependent on several features of the tumor including tumor size, the extent of the peritumoral edema, the number of tumors, sinus infiltration and the degree of resection.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Impact of Simulation on Critical Care Fellows’ Electroencephalography Learning

  Cureus · 2022-04-24 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Introduction Continuous electroencephalography (EEG) is an important monitoring modality in the intensive care unit and a key skill for critical care fellows (CCFs) to learn. Our objective was to evaluate with CCFs an EEG educational curriculum on a web-based simulator. Methods This prospective cohort study was conducted at a major academic medical center in Florida. After Institutional Review Board approval, 13 CCFs from anesthesiology, surgery, and pulmonary medicine consented to take an EEG curriculum. A 25-item EEG assessment was completed at baseline, after 10 EEG interpretations with a neurophysiologist, and after 10 clinically relevant EEG-based simulations providing clinical EEG interpretation hints. A 50-minute tutorial podcast was viewed after the baseline assessment. Main assessment outcomes included multiple outcomes related to web-based simulator performance: percent of hints used, percent of first words on EEG interpretation correct, and percent hint-based EEG interpretation score correct, with higher scores indicating more correct answers. Participants completed a 25-item EEG assessment before (baseline) and after the web-based simulator. Results All 13 CCFs completed the curriculum. Between scenarios, there were differences in percent of hints used (F9,108 = 11.7, p < 0.001), percent of first words correct (F9,108 = 13.6, p < 0.001), and overall percent hint-based score (F9,108 = 14.0, p < 0.001). Nonconvulsive status epilepticus had the lowest percent of hints used (15%) and the highest hint-based score (87%). Overall percent hint-based score (mean across all scenarios) was positively correlated with change in performance as the number of correct answers on the 25-item EEG assessment from before to after the web-based simulator activity (Spearman’s rho = 0.67, p = 0.023). Conclusions A self-paced EEG interpretation curriculum involving a flipped classroom and screen-based simulation each requiring less than an hour to complete significantly improved CCF scores on the EEG assessment compared to baseline.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Duration of Prophylactic Levetiracetam After Surgery for Brain Tumor: A Prospective Randomized Trial

  Neurosurgery · 2022 · 12 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Medicine
  • Anesthesia
  • Surgery

  BACKGROUND: Levetiracetam is commonly used as a prophylactic antiseizure medication in patients undergoing surgical resection of brain tumors. OBJECTIVE: To quantitate side effects experienced in patients treated with 1 week vs 6 weeks of prophylactic levetiracetam using validated measures for neurotoxicity and depression. METHODS: Patients undergoing surgical resection of a supratentorial tumor with no seizure history were randomized within 48 hours of surgery to receive prophylactic levetiracetam for the duration of either 1 or 6 weeks. Patients were given oral levetiracetam extended release 1000 mg during the first part of this study. Owing to drug backorder, patients enrolled later in this study received levetiracetam 500 mg BID. The primary outcome was the change in the neurotoxicity score 6 weeks after drug initiation. The secondary outcome was seizure incidence. RESULTS: A total of 81 patients were enrolled and randomized to 1 week (40 patients) or 6 weeks (41 patients) of prophylactic levetiracetam treatment. The neurotoxicity score slightly improved in the overall cohort between baseline and reassessment. There was no significant difference between groups in neurotoxicity or depression scores. Seizure incidence was low in the entire cohort of patients with 1 patient in each arm experiencing a seizure during the follow-up period. CONCLUSION: The use of prophylactic levetiracetam did not result in significant neurotoxicity or depression when given for either 1 week or 6 weeks. The incidence of seizure after craniotomy for tumor resection is low regardless of duration of therapy.

  PublisherDOI

• Depression & Neurotoxicity in a Population of Brain Tumor Patients Treated with a Short Course of Prophylactic Levetiracetam (P1-1.Virtual)

  Neurology · 2022-05-03

  articleSenior author

  To evaluate short course levetiracetam therapy by Beck Depression Index (BDI) and neurotoxicity scale scores in a cohort of brain tumor patients, sorted by tumor location.

  PublisherDOI

• The RITE of Passage: Learning Styles and Residency In-Service Training Examination (RITE) Scores

  Cureus · 2021-01-03 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Introduction The objective of the pilot study was to determine the association between learning preferences and improvement in the American Academy of Neurology Residency In-Service Training Examination (RITE) scores from postgraduate year 2 (PGY-2) to postgraduate year 3 (PGY-3) in neurology residents. Methods Neurology residents at the University of Florida were approached to participate, and their consent was obtained. VARK inventory, representing four modalities (visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic) of learning preferences, was completed by participants. Participants could pick more than one modality. The number of responses in each sensory domain was recorded, with higher numbers indicating stronger preference. Residents' performance on the RITE was recorded for PGY-2 and PGY-3. Results Seventeen residents completed the VARK inventory and 16 had data for RITE. Residents demonstrated overall positive change in RITE from PGY-2 to PGY-3 (mean change = 6%; 95%CI: 4%, 9%). The median number of responses was highest for the kinesthetic domain (median = 7, range = 1-12), followed by visual (median = 6, range = 2-12), aural (median = 4, range = 1-10), and read/write (median = 4, range = 1-10). Among VARK domains, the number of responses in read/write had the strongest correlation with mean change in RITE performance from PGY-2 to PGY-3 (r = 0.45; 95%CI: -0.08, 0.78); residents in the high read/write group (number of response above median) had greater mean change in RITE performance (9%; 95%CI: 6%, 12%) while those in the low read/write group showed little to no increase in RITE from PGY-2 to PGY-3 (2%; 95%CI: -1%, 6%). Conclusions Higher VARK survey responses in the read/write domain were related to greater change in RITE scores from PGY-2 to PGY-3. These findings seem intuitively obvious considering the format of the RITE. These pilot data permit further investigation of individual resident learning preference and how it relates to test performance. By understanding a resident's learning style, both educators and the resident will have an awareness of areas that need to be improved to be successful, which may be via remedial curricula and self-study activities.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Treatment of Adult Onset Rasmussen’s Encephalitis with Tocilizumab (4952)

  Neurology · 2021-04-13 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  To report a case of a patient with intractable epilepsy from adult onset Rasmussen’s encephalitis (RE) who responded to tocilizumab therapy.

  PublisherDOI

• An online, interactive, screen-based simulator for learning basic EEG interpretation

  Neurological Sciences · 2020 · 9 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Artificial Intelligence
  PublisherDOI

• A Practical Approach to Stereo EEG

  Springer eBooks · 2020 · 17 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Science
  PublisherDOI

• Baclofen Toxicity - The Importance of Medication Reconciliation (2400)

  Neurology · 2020-04-14 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  To describe a case of low-dose baclofen-related encephalopathy in the setting of renal disease, emphasizing the importance of medication reconciliation to avoid adverse events.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Brenda G. Fahy

  Florida College

  28 shared

• Robin L. Gilmore

  19 shared

• Terrie Vasilopoulos

  Florida College

  17 shared

• Kenneth M. Heilman

  University of Florida

  13 shared

• Basim M. Uthman

  University of Miami

  12 shared

• Steven N. Roper

  University of Florida

  10 shared

• Lou Ann Cooper

  University of Florida

  10 shared

• Samsun Lampotang

  9 shared

Labs

• iBRAIN LabPI

Education

• M.D.

  Case Western Reserve University

• M.D., epilepsy and behavioral neurology

  University of Florida

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology
• Fellow of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society
• Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society
• UF Health Physician Recognition Award for Excellence in Pati…
• UF Health Castle Connolly Top Doctor (2014-2024)