Whilst we were at ECTRIMS in Stockholm DrK got an email from our University informing him that his promotion was successful! Dr K is now Prof K! I think we should all clap hands, raise a glass of champagne and congratulate him on a well-deserved promotion. Professor Klaus Schmierer ProfK’s academic accomplishments have been well-rehearsed on this blog. He is an international expert on...
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an incurable neurological disorder that is characterized by the loss of specialized functional cells in our brain. Oligodendrocytes are one of these specialized cell types that play an important role in MS. They produce a fatty substance called myelin, which is produced in large sheaths that are tightly wrapped around our nerve cells. Myelin is essential for providing...
Rachel Horne wrote a guest post on 15 July called Identity. I think just about everyone who has had MS will have gone through at least one personal crisis and hopefully come out the other end. This is my personal crisis story or losing and regaining my identity and written with the benefit of hindsight. Diagnosis I was diagnosed in 1995 with RRMS. In those days the mobile phone was similar to a...
Visit us in Leith Harbour Oceans of Hope is still sailing – back in 2014 to 2015 we sailed around the world in our 67 feet steel sailing boat crewed by PwMS. This summer we are going to Scotland. On August 19 we are visiting Edinburgh and hosting an event in Leith Harbour together with MS Brain Health, Anne Rowling Clinic, EMSP and the MS Society Scotland. From MS Brain Health and Barts we are...
Chair of the ‘MS Service Provision in the UK: Raising the Bar’ steering group, Professor Gavin Giovannoni, sets out a succinct vision for the national initiative over the coming three years. Background Why should someone with MS who lives in place B get a different service to someone who lives in place A? I have argued that variance, when it comes to the provision of healthcare...
Are you a trainee in neurology? You may be interested in attending the 2019 Masterclass for Specialist Trainees with a focus on multiple sclerosis, July 19th at the London Paddington Hilton, 146 Praed Street, London W2 1EE, United Kingdom.
Thank you
Dr Antonio ScalafariConsultant Neurologist, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Many people with MS experience cognitive difficulties (poor concentration, trouble remembering, “cog fog”…). We know quite a bit about how these difficulties play out on formal tests that psychologists use. But we are less good at understanding the experience of people with MS with cognitive difficulties. There are a number of questionnaires that report cognitive difficulties that have been...
Have MS? You are entitled to a Disabled Persons Railcard. End of discussion. If you don’t want to read how or why I know this then just apply here. Explain that you have MS, enclose proof and voila. For £54 over 3 years you and one other enjoy 30% off rail fares at all times. The background to this follows: Being the sort of person that does not like unequal treatment nor the illogicality of...
Dr Saul Reyes, a neurologist from Colombia, is working with the Barts MS team for a year and is exploring the concept of social prescribing and the possibility of incorporating it into the Barts MS service. To kick-start this he spoke to the MS Advisory Group in February earlier this year. He then set up a meeting with Alyson McGregor the National Director of an organization called Altogether...
When in the police, many years ago, I went into some shocking situations. As a middle-class lad I often struggled to even understand how people could live like this. You’d never know it from external appearances with many people. If you want to gain confidence you rapidly learn to communicate at an entirely different level and understand the huge differences in interpretation of information and...