Dr. Kamitaki is an assistant professor of neurology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, and graduated from Pomona College, where he majored in Japanese language and literature. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Hawai’i John A. Burns School of Medicine. Dr. Kamitaki completed both his neurology residency and two-year clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. Since joining the medical school in 2018, Dr. Kamitaki has published on several clinical epilepsy and EEG topics, including patient safety in the epilepsy monitoring unit, drug-induced liver injury due to antiseizure medications, and quantitative EEG for ischemia detection in the intensive care unit and the operating room. His multi-center observational study examining factors that predict a refractory outcome in patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy was recently published in Epilepsia. He has a particular interest in health services research and health disparities in research. His project aimed at addressing barriers to comprehensive epilepsy care using a mixed-methods, multi-stakeholder approach was recently funded by an early-career research and training grant from the American Epilepsy Society.
Education/Training:
- Undergraduate School – Pomona College, CA
- Medial School – University of Hawai’i – John A. Burns School of Medicine
- Internship (Internal Medicine) – Columbia University Medical Center
- Residency – Columbia University Medical Center
- Fellowship (Clinical Neurophysiology & Epilepsy) – Columbia University Medical Center
Research Interests:
- Disparities in epilepsy care and outcomes
- Social determinants in epilepsy
- Mixed-methods participatory research to improve epilepsy patient outcomes
Publication Highlights:
- Kamitaki BK, Janmohamed M, Kandula P, Elder C, Mani R, Wong S, Perucca P, O’Brien TJ, Lin H, Heiman GA, Choi H. Clinical and EEG factors associated with antiseizure medication resistance in idiopathic generalized epilepsy. Epilepsia. 2021 Oct 27 (online ahead of print).
- Kamitaki BK, Rishty S, Mani R, Wong S, Bateman LM, Thomas-Hawkins C, Cantor JC, Kleinman LC. Using ICD-10 codes to identify elective epilepsy monitoring unit admissions from administrative billing data: a validation study. Epilepsy Behav. 2020 Oct;111:107194.
- Kamitaki BK, Minacapelli CD, Zhang P, Wachuku C, Gupta K, Catalano C, Rustgi V. Drug-induced liver injury associated with antiseizure medications from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). Epilepsy Behav. 2021 Apr;117:107832.
- Kamitaki BK, Tu B, Wong S, Mendiratta A, Choi H. Quantitative EEG changes correlate with post- clamp ischemia during carotid endarterectomy. J Clin Neurophysiol. 2021 May 1;38(3):213-220.
- Kamitaki BK, Yum A, Lee, J, Rishty S, Sivaraaman K, Esfahanizadeh A, Mani R, Wong S. Yield of conventional and automated seizure detection methods in the epilepsy monitoring unit. Seizure. 2019 Jul;69:290-95.
- Kamitaki BK, Billakota S, Bateman LM, Pack AM. Addition of a hospital bedside sitter during intracranial stereotactic EEG monitoring improves safety and seizures responses in an adult epilepsy monitoring unit. Epilepsy Behav. 2018 Sept;86:15-18.