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NewsSeptember 27, 2024
Fondazione Prada Presents “Preserving the Brain: A Call To Action” In Milan: A Conference (16 – 17 October 2024), An Exhibition and a Series of Meetings (16 October 2024 – 7 April 2025) on the Prevention of Neurodegenerative Diseases The new edition of “Preserving the Brain,” part of the “Human Brains” project dedicated since 2018 to neurosciences, will focus on the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases. Organized in partnership with fifteen renowned neuroscience institutes from world-class universities and five Italian patient organizations and associations, “Preserving the Brain: A Call to Action” consists in a scientific conference (16 – 17 October 2024) and an exhibition which will be accompanied by a series of meetings (16 October 2024 – 7 April 2025) to be held at Fondazione Prada in Milan. Click here to read full press release.
September 16, 2024 A new review led by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) provides guidance on how to diagnose suspected multiple sclerosis (MS) in individuals under 18 and adults 50 years and older. Click here to read full press release. September 3, 2024 Winner of the 2024 Rachel Horne Prize for Women's Research in MS Professor Kerstin Hellwig is being honoured for her pioneering research into understanding and navigating the safety of approved treatments for women with multiple sclerosis (MS) before, during and after pregnancy – so as to ensure the health of both mother and child. Professor Hellwig, a senior consultant at St Josef Hospital, Ruhr University, Bochum in Germany, specialises in MS and neuroimmunology and is a leading clinician-scientist in the field of MS and family planning. Click here to read full press release. August 9, 2024 ECTRIMS Patient Community Day As our grasp of MS and related neurological conditions evolves, so does our ability to enhance care and treatment. Join us for ECTRIMS Patient Community Day, where experts will simplify the latest research and advancements affecting your condition. This free event takes place on Friday, September 20, 2024, from 15:00 to 18:00 CEST at Bella Center Copenhagen and online. Pre-register to secure your spot and engage in meaningful discussions. For more details and registration, contact [email protected]. Click here to sign up for this event. June 14, 2024
Following a Moving Target: Current and Emerging Strategies for the Prevention and Management of COVID-19 in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis As our understanding of COVID-19 advances, so too does our understanding of its impact on multiple sclerosis (MS). Drs. Scott Newsome, Avindra Nath, and Gavin Giovannoni will help learners navigate the complexities of patient-specific factors (e.g., disability status, MS subtypes) and disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) to help improve both MS and COVID-related outcomes.
Click here to read full press release. March 8, 2024
Applications for the Rachel Horne Prize Open
Applications open for prestigious international prize to recognise women scientists and neurologists in Multiple Sclerosis research. Submissions for the 2024 Rachel Horne Prize for Women’s Research in MS are now open. This year, the annual award of US$40,000 will honour a female scientist whose exceptional clinical research work has improved patient care in women with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Click here to read full press release. February 13, 2024 Evolution of the McDonald Criteria ACTRIMS and its community continue to drive exciting and important changes in the way and the speed at which we diagnose multiple sclerosis, including leading the charge in Differential Diagnosis and collaborating on updates to the McDonald Criteria. You will hear much more about both efforts and outcomes in the coming months. We are happy to share this update from ECTRIMS on the McDonald Criteria next steps. Listen to The ECTRIMS Podcast Episode 26: Efforts Towards a Better MS Diagnostic Criteria here. January 31, 2024
National MS Society Awards Dr. Sergio Baranzini the Barancik Prize for Innovation in MS Research The National Multiple Sclerosis Society announced Sergio E. Baranzini, PhD, a geneticist, neuroimmunologist, and data scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, is the winner of this year's Barancik Prize for Innovation in MS Research. Read the full press release here. October 18, 2023
Message from ACTRIMS President ACTRIMS President Mark Freedman extends a special invitation for the ACTRIMS Forum 2024 to constituents who were unable to travel to MSMilan2023 due to the Israel-Hamas War.
See full video message here. September 15, 2023
USA Neurologist Wins Inaugural Rachel Horne Prize for Women's Research in MS
Rhonda Voskuhl, MD, neurologist, research-scientist and clinician at the University of California (UCLA) is the first winner of the Rachel Horne Prize for Women’s Research in MS for her work looking at sexual differences in susceptibility and progression in multiple sclerosis (MS) and identifying potential therapies to improve outcomes.
Dr. Voskuhl is Professor of Neurology at UCLA, holds the Jack H Skirball Chair for Multiple Sclerosis Research, and is Director of the UCLA Multiple Sclerosis Programme. She describes her research as a “Bedside to Bench to Bedside” approach – taking observations made in clinical settings to the laboratory to investigate relevant biological mechanisms and then designing clinical trials to benefit patients.
Read the full press release here.
August 4, 2023 WHO Recognises the Public Health Need for Effective and Affordable Treatments for Multiple Sclerosis Today the World Health Organization (WHO) added three disease modifying-therapies (DMTs) for multiple sclerosis (MS) onto its Essential Medicines List for the first time. With this landmark decision, the WHO acknowledges the critical importance of making MS treatments available in all health systems at all times. It is a significant moment in the history of MS, marking a crucial step towards improving access to MS treatments for people living with MS, particularly those in low- and middle-income countries or low-resource settings, who face significant barriers to accessing MS treatments. The three treatments added onto the WHO Essential Medicines List are rituximab, cladribine and glatiramer acetate. MSIF and its members stress that the three medicines listed provide a baseline of care but are not the only ones that are effective and important for the treatment of MS. As this is the first time that MS treatments are included, a new section has been created on the list underlining the importance of treating MS. Although these treatments represent a highly prioritised selection of the DMTs that are currently used to treat MS, this decision lays the foundations for better access to all DMTs around the world. See MSIF's full press release here.
August 3, 2023 Breaking Barriers in MS will be the focus at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2024 The Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis’ (ACTRIMS) annual Forum will take place Feb. 29 - March 2, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida at the Palm Beach County Convention Center and the Hilton West Palm Beach. The ACTRIMS Forum 2024 will provide an excellent opportunity to interact with scientists and clinicians at the cutting edge of MS research. This year’s theme is “Breaking Barriers in MS.” The scientific program will include discussion of barriers such as healthcare disparities and access to care, CNS borders and associated cells, impediments to neural repair, rehabilitation roadblocks, and clinical trial design considerations. This CE-accredited meeting stands apart from many traditional medical meetings by offering a singular track of scientific and clinical presentations in a dynamic environment with over 400 posters sharing investigative results. See full press release here. July 19, 2023 Is it MS or Something Else? Updated Guide is Published to Expedite and Uncover the Answer An international consortium led by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) has published an updated comprehensive guide to differentiate multiple sclerosis (MS) from potential mimics. This guide, developed by experts in the field and published in The Lancet Neurology journal, aims to support the diagnostic process, allowing for faster and more accurate identification of MS. Diagnosing MS can be challenging due to the existence of other disorders that exhibit clinical, laboratory, or imaging findings similar to those of MS. To ensure an accurate diagnosis, it is important for clinicians to consider these alternative explanations before confirming MS. The MS Differential Diagnosis Consortium, initiated by ACTRIMS, mobilized experts from around the world to address this issue and update guidance surrounding the diagnostic process. As part of this effort, the consortium reviewed 476 relevant studies published after 2008 and developed comprehensive recommendations, which were published online in Lancet Neurology on July 19, 2023. The paper also addresses the consideration of geography, age, race, ethnicity, and genetic ancestry in the process of differential diagnosis for MS. Citation for the paper Andrew J Solomon,a Georgina Arrambide, Wallace J Brownlee, Eoin P Flanagan, Maria Pia Amato, Lilyana Amezcua, Brenda L Banwell, Frederik Barkhof, John R Corboy, Jorge Correale, Kazuo Fujihara, Jennifer Graves, Mary Pat Harnegie, Bernhard Hemmer, Jeannette Lechner-Scott, Ruth Ann Marrie, Scott D Newsome, Maria A Rocca, Walter Royal III, Emmanuelle L Waubant, Bassem Yamout, and Jeffrey A Cohen. Differential diagnosis of suspected multiple sclerosis: an updated consensus approach. a Corresponding author: Andrew Solomon, [email protected] The Lancet Neurology published online ahead of print July 19, 2023, DOI is 10.1016/ S1474-4422(23)00148-5. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(23)00148-5/fulltext March 2023 We believe everyone living with Multiple Sclerosis across the world should have equal and affordable access to disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). Read more about MS International Federation MSIF and World Health Organization Collaborating Centre Bologna's application to add MS treatments to the World Health Organization's Essential Medicines List (EML) in Lancet Neurology. November 18, 2022 The Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) congratulates the International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials (IACCT) in MS on their creation of a proposed framework redefining how different types of multiple sclerosis are described. This new framework will be instrumental in being able to better understand and treat MS in the future. The paper by Tanja Kuhlmann, MD (University Hospital Münster, Germany) and collaborators was published today in Lancet Neurology on behalf of the IACCT. ACTRIMS supports the panel’s proposal to understand MS as a continuous disease process and agrees that having a biological understanding of what drives any individual’s disease course will lead to better, more personalized treatments. The International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials in MS, a long-standing initiative jointly supported by ECTRIMS and the National MS Society (USA) and includes many current and former ACTRIMS board members. The Committee provides perspective and guidance in areas of interest to planning and implementation of clinical trials for new agents for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. July 26, 2021 The Atlas of MS showed that off-label disease-modifying therapies are used in at least 89 countries. This highlights the need for structured and transparent evidence-based guidelines to support clinical decision-making, pharmaceutical policies and reimbursement decisions. The authors put forward general principles for the ethical use of off-label DMTs for treating MS and a process to assess existing evidence and develop recommendations for their use in this manuscript. The principles and process are endorsed by the World Federation of Neurology (WFN), American Academy of Neurology (AAN), European Academy of Neurology (EAN), Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS), European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS), Middle-East North Africa Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (MENACTRIMS) and Pan-Asian Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (PACTRIMS). |