CMSC and NeurologyLive Series, ‘Ever Changing Face of MS,’ Opens for Doctors

The Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) has launched a monthly webinar series, in partnership with NeurologyLive, to keep doctors and others treating people with multiple sclerosis (MS) informed of the latest in disease care and research.

Called “The Ever Changing Face of MS,” the series opened on April 28 with a look at diagnostic criteria. The next webinar, “The Ever Expanding MS Therapeutics,” is set for May 19 at 7 p.m. ET.

It will address topics that include telemedicine and COVID-19, changes in barriers to treating MS and in the monitoring of treatment safety and effectiveness, and the likely future of MS therapies. Registration is required; information is here.

This session will feature Ahmed Obeidat, MD, PhD, director of the neuroimmunology and MS fellowship program at The Medical College Wisconsin; Suma Shah, MD, director of the MS and neuroimmunology fellowship program at Duke University School of Medicine; and S. Mitchell Freedman, professor of neurology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“The Ever Changing Face of MS series … will allow us to keep the healthcare community informed and up to date on the diagnosis, treatment and care of this complex neurological disease,” June Halper, CEO of the CMSC, said in press release.

Its opening webinar, “The Evolving Diagnostic Criteria for Multiple Sclerosis,” is available to all who register. Among its topics were diagnosing MS during a pandemic and online-only patient visits, a review of McDonald diagnostic criteria, and MS “mimickers,” or diseases with features similar to those seen in MS.

Current guidelines favor an MS diagnosis using the revised 2017 McDonald criteria, which relies on clinical examination as well as central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) imaging, usually MRI scans, to establish the presence of demyelinating lesions — regions without the myelin sheath protecting nerve fibers.

Obeidat was also featured in this April 28 webinar, as was Hesham Abboud, MD, PhD, director of the MS and neuroimmunology program at the Cleveland Medical Center, and Rana K. Zabad, MD, chief of the neurological sciences department at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Previous educational video series sponsored by the CMSC and NeurologyLive, a multimedia platform for specialists in that field, include a five-part series in 2020 that focused on changing MRI protocols and guidelines in treating and managing MS, and this year’s 13-part Cure Connections series, also for healthcare professionals and covering issues ranging from fatigue and other symptoms to managing a patient’s advanced disease.