There are two doctors. Here’s your choice: One has a patient-centered approach to care, spends more time with you during appointments, and is more empathetic with your concerns. On average, patients under this doctor live longer. The other doctor spends less time in the appointment, struggles to listen…
I’ve been at a conference the last few days where scholars from around the world are discussing health literacy. It’s a subject much more complicated than just wondering at what level a person might read, or if they can read at all. It’s also a discipline rooted in…
When talking about MS research, we tend to focus on drug development because improved therapies, and even the cure for MS, will come from pharmaceuticals. But what do we know about other MS research that doesn’t involve taking a pill or enduring an injection? I’m talking about those…
Do you ever stop and ponder the value of MS drugs? I’m not talking about if they work and the ways they improve our lives. I’m thinking of the COST of them and what their pricing means to investors. I get several market analysis reports on the pharmaceutical industry,…
How many hours do the pharmaceutical companies think we have in our day? I ask because almost all of them have come up with very slick tools to use, particularly mobile apps, to help us improve our daily lives with MS. Not coincidentally, these apps also provide their…
What better time of year to talk about getting good sleep than heading into the fall season, which is followed by the dark days of winter? Although we are not furry creatures who curl up in a cave to sleep through the winter, many of us wish we could do…
Many of you are considering making the switch to Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) as your disease-modifying therapy for multiple sclerosis. This is a switch I made recently. There are so many questions and unknowns about how this treatment might help me, and I’m trying to…
Advocacy comes in many forms, and recently I wrote about what advocacy by individuals might look like. The other type of advocacy we have going for those of us with multiple sclerosis is the work done on our behalf by a large number of nonprofit organizations. Let…
I stood at the front door of my house and could only shake my head as I watched the backhoe digging a deep trench in my yard. A sewer line malfunction created a mess in my basement and it turned out to be a broken clay pipe in…
Do you ever stop to wonder about the people who write these great columns for Multiple Sclerosis News Today? I have the honor of knowing several of them via telephone conversations and even occasional in-person meetings. You can tell by looking at our bios that we are a…
I recently spent time at the annual meeting of the Drug Information Association (DIA), listening to presentations and talking with industry representatives about the multiple sclerosis community’s needs. DIA is a nonprofit association that has been around more than 50 years. Their primary interest is the development of healthcare…
If you’ve followed my writing, you already know I am committed to advancing patient-centered research and care. I am the lead patient representative and co-principal investigator for iConquerMS. One of the main goals of iConquerMS is to elevate the voice of people with MS into research. How do…
Editor’s note: This column is second in a series. Read the first part here. Just you wait! How many times have we heard those words or said them to someone else? I find that now it’s my turn to wait. What I’m waiting for is six months…
I’ve done it! I made the treatment switch that so many people with multiple sclerosis are talking about: I said goodbye to Tysabri (natalizumab) and am now on Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) as my disease-modifying therapy (DMT). I went through 56 monthly infusions (or maybe more, I’ve…
Editor’s note: Patient columnist Laura Kolaczkowski attended the 31st annual Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers conference in New Orleans. We’re facing a major problem in the near future due to a shortage of researchers for multiple sclerosis, according to Jerry Wolinsky, MD, Bartels Family and Opal…
Editor’s note: Patient columnist Laura Kolaczkowski attended the 31st annual Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers conference in New Orleans. The information in this article was taken from an interview session with the physicians. The use of gadolinium, which is the contrast agent often used during MRIs for multiple…
I couldn’t help but smile when I saw “MS Comprehensive Care: A Team Sport“ listed as the title of the John F. Kurtzke Memorial Lecture at the opening of the Consortium of MS Centers 2017 Annual Meeting. Kurtzke, according to the program, was a strong advocate of the…
How well do you bounce back when MS gets you down? An article called “Bouncing back again, and again: a qualitative study of resilience in people with multiple sclerosis” caught my attention because bouncing back is something I don’t do as well these days. I believe resilience means to be…
“Coping with Caregiver Burnout When Caring for A Person with Neurodegenerative Disease: A Guide for Caregivers,” published in the April 2017 issue of the Archives for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, is intended to give better insight into caregiver burnout, and what might be…
I knew it was only a matter of time before my MS neurologist would have MS PATHS available to collect clinical data from people who have agreed to participate. MS PATHS is an information- and biological sample-gathering clinical study from Biogen, the leading manufacturer of multiple sclerosis disease-modifying…
The American Academy of Neurology‘s (AAN) 2017 annual meeting will bring together physicians who practice in all areas of neurology, including our own multiple sclerosis (MS) specialists. In a recent interview with Anthony Traboulsee, MD, associate professor and research chair of the MS Society of…
Pamela Arterbridge is one of 70 people at Ohio State University’s Multiple Sclerosis Center taking part in the open-label part of a clinical trial for ocrelizumab, now best known as Ocrevus. She is a patient of Dr. Michael Racke, who is a pioneer in the field of B-cell treatments for MS,…
A prominent neurologist, who was involved in early research into B-cell therapy, tells Multiple Sclerosis News Today about his positive experience of using ocrelizumab, now branded Ocrevus, with patients. Michael Racke, MD, Department of Neurology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center took time to talk with me about…
Have you ever used acupuncture? I have a number of times and would do so more often if it were a medical service covered by my insurance. Unfortunately, for now, most complementary treatments we have available to help with the symptoms of multiple sclerosis are not covered by commercial insurance. In…
The sky-high costs to Medicare for prescriptions of the MS medication H.P. Acthar Gel, as reported in Multiple Sclerosis News Today were highlighted at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) 2017 Forum in…
I was in Washington, D.C. for a meeting, and had the opportunity to dine with some fellow multiple sclerosis advocates. I thought it might be of interest to get their take on the most pressing issues of 2017 for people living with MS. I wasn’t sure what to…
The role of the microbiome and its association with multiple sclerosis was the topic of several sessions and papers at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) 2017 Forum. More than 800 researchers and clinicians attended the second annual meeting in Orlando last week to hear…
Harold Weiner, MD, believes in using probiotics to help treat multiple sclerosis. He is such a believer that he did a presentation on the subject — “Probiotics in Multiple Sclerosis” — at the just-concluded Americas for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) 2017 Forum in Orlando. The event…
Editor’s note: Columnist Laura Kolaczkowski writes from the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) 2017 Forum in Orlando, Fla., (Feb. 23-25). Two MS disease-modifying therapies, Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) and Rituxan (rituximab) were featured in this year’s Kenneth P. Johnson, MD, Memorial Lecture…
Evidence supporting the use of Vitamin D for people with multiple sclerosis continues to grow but there remains many unanswered questions as well. Ellen Mowry, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins MS Center, presented Vitamin D supplementation as disease modifying therapy, to participants at…
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