This MS MasterClass 8 intermodule project winner announced

This week, our eighth MS MasterClass shared their practical projects and then voted for the most innovative, interesting or inspiring amongst them.

A joint project by Ruth Stross, MS Nurse Specialist, Surrey Downs Health and Care and Dr Ioana Cociasu, Clinical Fellow in Neurology, St George’s Hospital was voted as the overall winner. They have begun to map out and develop an integrated care pathway (ICP) for people diagnosed with MS within the new NHS integrated care system ‘Surrey Heartlands’.

The positive results of developing and implementing this ICP across Surrey Downs Health & Care have been numerous. These include bringing a wide range of Health and social care professionals, patient charities and other community services together with a common purpose, to improve patient care. It has already highlighted critical need and gaps in service, especially with psychological support and the management of disease modifying therapies. Social Services have suggested MS Champions for each locality, and the MS Trust have agreed in principal to pump prime 1 whole time equivalent MS nurse post in the area and the MS Society have developed an information leaflet on all available services in the area.

This pathway is a snapshot into current local practice and is meant to be a catalyst for the implementation of medium and long-term changes, effectively transforming good clinical practice into standard practice

The runners up on this occasion were Liam Rice, MS Nurse Specialist at Royal Hallamshire Hospital for his project: ‘Joined up thinking, setting up a multiple sclerosis / urology service’, and Pauline McDonald, MS Specialist Nurse at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital who looked at the length of time it takes to start on a DMT after diagnosis in Glasgow.

The three join a prestigious alumni of winners ranging in role across pharmacists, specialist nurses and consultant neurologists, all of whose projects are available online.

All of our intermodule projects are written up and categorised to help you navigate topics and themes. Whether you look at the longer articles, concise posters or summary ‘snapshot’ versions, we hope that you will find plenty to learn from, and to inspire action in your own localities.