ECTRIMS / ACTRIMS 8th Joint Conference: MS Virtual 2020
The 8th joint meeting across the European and American Committees for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis took place across 11th-13th September and was fully accessible online.
Neurology Academy, together with some of our faculty who are in attendance, are providing you with short, succinct summaries from as many of the sessions as possible.
Feedback from many of you suggests that video or audio files are most the most welcome formats for information, so the majority of summaries will be available as an audio file, with written copy and links included for a deeper dive, if you so wish.
For more information view the programme, visit the website msvirtual2020.org or follow the hashtag #MSVIRTUAL2020
- Seeing a difference in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder: Integrating novel strategies into care
- Gut-CNS axis and the microbiome in MS
- Closing lecture: New insights in immunopathogenesis
- Hot topic - strategies for remyelination in MS
- A new treatment option for patients with relapsing forms of MS
- Discussions in the Brain Exchange chat rooms
- Innovations in symptomatic and rehabilitative therapy
- Telemedicine in MS: a discussion in the Brain Exchange chat rooms
- What’s new in relapsing MS? Expert Perspectives on Pathogenesis, Targeting B Cells for Treatment, and Advances in Disease State Monitoring
- The MS Prodrome by Dr Helen Tremlett
- Impact of the environment and lifestyle and MS risk and clinical course
Faculty feedback highlights from ECTRIMS
Joela Mathews, neuropharmacist, and faculty for MS and Neuropharmacy Academies, fed back on her highlights this year:
- ‘The session on rituximab and how low doses of rituximab seems to offer similar effectiveness with better safety profile than high doses was really interesting.’
- ‘The clinical trial of Ozanimod in RMS – was against an active comparator (Beta interferon (IM) and showed a 48% relative reduction in annualised relapse rate.’
- ‘There were lots of case reports on management of lymphopenia with differing disease-modifying therapies (DMTs).’
- ‘The brain exchange session on diversity was interesting with a lot of useful discussions regarding both patients and healthcare professionals. s. These need to result in more actions going forward.’
Agne Straukiene, lead for the healthy lifestyle workstream in Raising the Bar for MS, gave some of her highlights on a few specific sessions:
- the opening lecture on the MS Prodrome, presented by Dr Helen Tremlett
- the brain exchange chat room discussion on telemedicine
- the brain exchange chat room discussion on COVID-19 and the MS immune system