« If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. »
I’m leaving Copenhagen with this simple, though profound sentence Lord Kelvin once said and Gavin Giovannoni bring back during an inspiring talk at #ECTRIMS2024, on how objective measures should be integrated in MS clinical care management.
If you can’t measure actual disability progression, how could you demonstrate new drug efficacy on smouldering Multiple Sclerosis? How could you intervene as a clinician to propose and promote a comprehensive care management?
If you can’t measure the hidden part of the iceberg between yearly clinical visit, i.e., the disease fluctuation and its impact on quality of life of patients living with MS, how could you support care and lower the burden of the disease?
If you can’t measure MS comorbidities, highly prevalent in neurological chronic disease, how could you concretely monitor and manage fatigue, depression, etc.?
These numerous challenges and clinical unmet needs are envisioned and now proven to be at least in part overcome by patient reported outcomes and objective measures.
We came at #ECTRIMS2024 with three posters supporting this field and promoting the use of #digitalbiomarkers and #digitalhealthtechnologies, providing Ad Scientiam’s vision of a comprehensive monitoring of MS selected domains.
First by demonstrating that #MSCopilot is able to objectively measure key functional parameters that are sensitive to the different MS phenotypes in a first of its kind real life cohort.
Second, by presenting a clinical study design, MS-BOOST, that aims at validating two interventional digital modules designed to better monitor and manage fatigue and fatiguability from the confort of patients’ home and thus reduce perceived burden and impact on patients’ daily life.
Finally, by discussing the challenges and unmet needs of a major comorbidity in MS, depression. We proposed a framework through MSCopilot to leverage existing modules to objectively capture its severity, detect sooner and manage its symptoms.
We are now leaving #ECTRIMS2024 with even more trust and confidence that #MSCopilot and its different programs are heading towards the right direction and that this journey is only the beginning of a great adventure that involves many different key stakeholders of the MS community.
President of ADPD Advances in Science and Therapy
6moWhat an achievement!