An important and often neglected part of being an academic is public engagement or PPI (patient-public involvement). The aim of these activities is to try and communicate the science of MS in a way that is understandable to people and to involve them in MS Research.
Over the last two weekends, I presented at the MS Ireland annual meeting in Athlone and the South Devon MS Meeting in Torquay.
For the slides and more.....
The following are my slide presentations for you to look at and a brief discussion of their contents.
MS Ireland 2018, Athlone 22nd Sept 2018
The main message in relation to quality of life is to focus on:
1. Patient activation and empowerment.
2. Effective early treatment of MS and to treat-2-target of NEDA in the first instance and to maximise #BrainHealth for the life of the MSer.
3. To live a #BrainHealthy life.
4. To have your MS managed holistically, i.e. to not ignore comorbidities, lifestyle factors and wellness.
5. To #ThinkSocial. This is a new campaign we are launching to get MSers to engage in activities to maintain and if possible increase their social capital. We have only started to explore this as a way to treat MS and optimise MS outcomes.
South Devon MS Metting, Torquay 29th Sept. 2018
Dr Jeremy Hobart, my friend and colleague, from Plymouth, has been trying for some time to get me down to his annual meeting for people with MS. He asked me to present on #PreventMS one of our ongoing initiatives to try and kickstart MS Prevention trials or at least get the necessary infrastructure in place for doing trials in people at high risk of getting MS. I think the slides are self-explanatory.
After my talk, I was inundated with people asking me a lot of questions about MS and how to manage their disease and to prevent their family members getting MS. I hope I achieved my primary aim of convincing the MS community that MS is potentially a preventable disease and that we need to act now.
Apologies for not staying longer in Torquay yesterday. I had to travel to Bath to meet my wife for a corporate event. Next time I participate I hope to stay the whole day. Please feel free to ask as many questions as you like; I will endeavour to answer them promptly.
Slides
Please feel free to download them. I have uploaded them to an FTP site as PowerPoint versions on a new personally owned and run slide-sharing site that is independent of SlideShare/LinkedIn/Microsoft who have suspended my account despite a strong appeal.
Dr K (Barts-MS) and Dr R (UCL) were also on the programme and I will ask them to share their slides with you as well.
CoI: multiple