Multiple Sclerosis

Paul Wicks, PhD, vice president of innovation at PatientsLikeMe, discussed the benefits of using technology in multiple sclerosis research by patients, providers, researchers, and other decision-makers.

Despite the benefit of having more choices than ever before to treat patients with multiple sclerosis, the abundance of options has led to more complexity, according to speakers at the 2014 ACTRIMS-ECTRIMS Joint Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

As a medium, the Internet neither helps nor harms in multiple sclerosis care - what matters is how clinicians and patients engage in that medium, according to Paul Wicks, PhD, vice president of innovation at PatientsLikeMe.

At this year's ECTRIMS conference in Boston, Alasdair Coles, MD, University of Cambridge, discussed alemtuzumab and its effectiveness in treating multiple sclerosis.

The second year of the extension study of Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) for multiple sclerosis reported positive interim results with 70% of patients not requiring a third course of treatment.

Although there have been significant advances in multiple sclerosis management, patient preferences need to be taken into account before choosing treatment, according to speakers at the 2014 ACTRIMS-ECTRIMS Joint Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

Patients with multiple sclerosis want to be actively engaged in their treatment decisions, which will help their long-term health and medication adherence, according to speakers at the 2014 ACTRIMS-ECTRIMS Joint Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

The treatment landscape for multiple sclerosis continues to get more complex month to month, which makes biomarker discovery increasingly important for treating the disease, said Suhayl Dhib-Jalbut, MD, professor at the Rutgers University Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, during his session at the 2014 Joint ACTRIMS-ECTRIMS Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

Although the survival rate of natalizumab-associated progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is better than PML in HIV patients, long-term they may need some assistance and care, Ralf Gold, Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, said at the 2014 Joint ACTRIMS-ECTRIMS Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

Advanced imaging techniques are becoming necessary to further understanding of the progression of multiple sclerosis, according to presenters at the 2014 Joint ACTRIMS-ECTRIMS Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, from September 10-13.

When choosing treatment for a patient, whether he or she has a clinically isolated syndrome or clinically definite multiple sclerosis, providers need to establish a collaborative relationship, according to speakers at the 2014 Joint ACTRIMS-ECTRIMS Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

Even as the cost of prescription drugs has plummeted for many Americans, a small slice of the population is being asked to shoulder more and more of the cost of expensive treatments for diseases like cancer and hepatitis C, according to a report to be released on Tuesday by a major drug research firm.

Those with chronic illnesses such as leukemia, hepatitis C, and multiple sclerosis may face a significant increase in their out-of-pocket expenses for specialty drugs. This is because payers are replacing fixed-dollar copayments with coinsurance rates that require patients to contribute a higher percentage of the cost for their specialty medications.

This week AJMC is covering session highlights from the PBMI Annual Drug Benefit conference.

Patricia Coyle, MD, director, MS Comprehensive Care Center, Stony Brook Neurosciences Institute, professor and vice chair of clinical affairs, Department of Neurology, SUNY at Stony Brook, says that prognostically, the earlier you treat multiple sclerosis the better.

The gold standard for measuring treatment outcomes in multiple sclerosis (MS) is the randomized clinical trial (RCT). However, RCTs are often short-sighted and biased in their execution. Dr Maria Sormani, PhD, Biostatistics Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy, addressed this problem in a lecture on immunomodulatory treatment of MS.

In this video, Fred Lublin, MD, Saunders Family professor of neurology, director, The Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discussed the results of his poster presentation, Natalizumab Reduces the Disabling Amplitude of Multiple Sclerosis Relapses and Improves Post-relapse Residual Disability.

Clinical trials and treatment in multiple sclerosis (MS) place an unwelcome economic burden upon countries with MS prevalence. With rising costs and a growing interest in MS clinical trials from emerging countries, new studies are needed to evaluate the significance of these factors.

Fatigue and cognitive impairment are 2 of the most common health problems associated with multiple sclerosis (MS). Recent MS studies evaluate the nature of these 2 conditions not just as side effects of MS, but as chronic conditions with varying degrees of severity based on objective assessment and self-perception.

Barry Singer, MD, director, MS Center for Innovations in Care, St. Louis, MO, said that the Affordable Care Act could cause challenges in terms of coverage.

New disease-modifying drugs in multiple sclerosis (MS) show potential for improving quality-of-life (QoL) of patients with multiple sclerosis. The clinical benefits of dimethyl fumarate and PR-fampridine were discussed at a Biogen Idec-sponsored satellite symposium at the 29th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS).