CMSC 2020 Meeting Will Be Free and Online May 26-29

To ensure the safety of its participants during the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) Annual Meeting will be a free virtual conference on May 26–29.

This meeting is considered the largest educational conference in North America for healthcare professionals working in multiple sclerosis (MS). The virtual initiative is a joint effort by the CMSC and the multimedia platform NeurologyLive.

“We are so proud to be able to work with CMSC to help transition their annual meeting into this innovative virtual format to accommodate the safety of attendees amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mike Hennessy Jr., president and CEO of MJH Life Sciences, the parent company of NeurologyLive, said in a press release.

“CMSC is part of our Strategic Alliance Partnership program, and this is the perfect example of how we can work together to deliver critical information to the MS community,” Hennessy added.

The free education activity is targeted at healthcare professionals working, or with a special interest, in MS, including physicians, advanced practice clinicians, nurses, rehabilitation specialists, psychologists, pharmacists, social workers, patient advocates, and researchers.

Over its four days, experts will deliver educational sessions and presentations that provide attendees with cutting-edge research findings, emerging care issues, and clinical advances in the MS field.

Each day, presenters will focus on a specific aspect of the disease, with day one being about disease management, and the next days addressing comprehensive care, pharmaceutical therapeutics, and hot topics.

Peter Calabresi, MD, will open the meeting with the Whitaker Lecture on Tuesday, May 26. His talk is titled “CNS Immune Responses that Underlie Progressive MS: Future Challenges in the COVID-19 Era.” Calabresi is a professor of neurology and director of the division of neuroimmunology at Johns Hopkins University.

On Thursday, May 28, the John F. Kurtzke Lecture, titled “Stem Cell Research Update,” will be delivered by Mark Freedman, MD, a professor of medicine in neurology at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, and director of the MS research unit at Ottawa Hospital—General Campus.

The CMSC is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, the American Nurses Credentialing Center, and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. Professionals taking part in the 2020 CMSC meeting can earn up to 18 continuing education credits by attending the virtual sessions.

“The CMSC supports all efforts to eliminate COVID-19 from our country and the world, and is saddened to cancel our live annual meeting,” said June Halper, CEO of the consortium. “Our partnership with NeurologyLive has enabled us to provide accredited information to our membership and the MS community in a novel and exciting way.”

For more information on the meeting’s agenda and to register, visit this link.