Maryland special education teacher Ingrid Hanson says that since she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis five years ago, she’s developed a better understanding of her students’ needs and the importance of teamwork.

Flavia Nelson, an MS specialist at the University of Texas in Houston, contends that socioeconomic and cultural barriers — especially among Hispanics — prevent better outcomes in MS.
Cathy Chester recalls the journal she kept as a child, how she dreamed of becoming a writer, and why extreme numbness in her hands and feet led her to an MS diagnosis in 1986 — and eventually to a New York center where she finally got the specialized care and emotional support she needed.
The three are among 20 people featured on video presentations that form the backbone of MS Teamworks — a new resource in which patients, doctors, and care partners share their stories online.

“We wanted these conversations to be more than lectures, and to make them accessible,” June Halper, CEO of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers, told Multiple Sclerosis News Today in a phone interview.
The consortium, known as CMSC, is a leading educational, training and networking organization for MS healthcare professionals and researchers based in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Halper said the MS Teamworks project — which has been in the works for a year — is based on the popular TED talks.
“What we did was engage a number of people with MS as well as families and professionals to have a brief 14- to 18-minute conversation about specific topics,” she said. “Each one has a theme: being a mother with a child and having MS, or being a young man with a disease not common in men and trying to continue a career.”