For the roughly 50 million people worldwide with epilepsy, the exchange of electrical signals between cells in their brain can sometimes go haywire and cause a seizure—often with little to no warning. Fortunately, technology has come a long way to helping those living with the condition.

At the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, researchers recently developed a new AI-powered model that can predict the occurrence of seizures up to one hour before onset with 99.6 percent accuracy. That’s huge, especially considering the unpredictability of seizures often has a “strong psychological and social effect” on epilepsy patients.

Detecting seizures ahead of time could greatly improve the quality of life for patients with epilepsy and provide them with enough time to take action. Notably, seizures are controllable with medication in up to 70 percent of patients.

Currently, other methods analyze brain activity with an EEG (electroencephalogram) test and apply a predictive model afterwards. The new method does both of those things at once, with the help of a deep algorithm, which enables earlier and more accurate seizure prediction.

Next, the researchers are planning to improve the efficiency of the device by developing a customized computer chip to help process the necessary algorithms.