Shortlisted at HSJ Partnership Awards 2019 for Best Educational Programme for the NHS

Neurology Academy (@TheNeuroAcademy) is shortlisted for Best Educational Programme for the NHS at the 2019 #HSJpartnership awards for addressing variation in MS services nationally through clinical engagement and collaboration #NHSpartnership https://t.co/C3GiX7ImRL

— Partnership Awards (@hsjpartnership) 22 January 2019

The Neurology Academy is thrilled to announce that we've been shortlisted for the HSJ Partnership Awards 2019 in the category Best Educational Programme for the NHS! Our entry for this award is 'Addressing variation in MS services nationally through clinical engagement and collaboration'. This is done in a number of ways through our main MasterClass programmes and MS Variance meetings.The awards, running for a second year, highlight and celebrate the invaluable work done by organisations working alongside the NHS. This work is ‘often unseen but essential’, say the Health Service Journal. We are proud to be in the company of organisations like Eli Lilly and company, and Olympus in the category Best Educational Programme for the NHS. The HSJ say of their chosen shortlisters that each organisation is ‘delivering tangible benefits to NHS patients, clinicians and the facilities they use, making a real difference in these challenging economic times.’The winners will be announced at an awards dinner next month. Find out more about the awards or see the array of projects shortlisted in last year’s awards.Prof Gavin Giovannoni, Academic Director:"At the MS Academy, we are trying to help. We have identified that access to MS services is inequitable. Variation in access to and the prescribing of disease-modifying therapies have been well documented across the UK in surveys performed by the MS Society, MS Trust and the Royal College of Physicians. This has been backed up by data presented at the ABN in Birmingham from the NHS England’s Bluteq high-cost drugs database. This is a problem for people living with MS and is a barrier to improving outcomes for pwMS being managed by the NHS.To address this problem we initially held a debate in May this year at the ICC Birmingham on whether or not the new NHS England treatment algorithm will reduce variation in the prescribing of DMTs in England. This was followed by a much larger meeting of representatives from MS disease-modifying therapy prescribing centres across the UK, in Birmingham, in early November. The meeting was a great success and generated many ideas and proposals that if implemented could potentially solve the problem of variance in the NHS. We are now planning to hold the subsequent follow-on meeting next year, on the 8th and 9th of July, at the Birmingham Conference and Events Centre (BCEC), to implement several of the proposals that emerged from this meeting. Places are limited so register now.Our MS MasterClasses continues to emphasise MS service development and doing things better. The interactive nature of the classes and the collaborative spirit means delegates are sharing best practice and hence should be adopting innovations more rapidly. The extensive use of case studies continues to highlight why it is important to adopt a more proactive approach to the management of MS. Time matters in the management of MS and the consequences for individual patients can have major consequences."Thank you to everyone who supports our work!→ MS Foundation MasterClass Module 1: 20-22 March 2019 Module 2: 20 September 2019 Halifax Hall, Sheffield University Campus→ MS Intermediate MasterClass Module 1: 12-14 June 2019 Module 2: 5-6 December 2019 Halifax Hall, Sheffield University Campus→ MSologists MasterClass Module 1: 6-8 November 2019 Module 2: 21-22 May 2020 Halifax Hall, Sheffield University Campus→ MS Service Provision in the UK; Raising the Bar 8 and 9 July 2019 The Birmingham Conference & Events Centre