Does attendance at the ECTRIMS congress impact on therapeutic decisions in multiple sclerosis care?

Abstract

Conferences traditionally play an important role in the ongoing medical education of healthcare professionals. We assessed the influence of attending the ECTRIMS congress on therapeutic decision-making in multiple sclerosis (MS) care. A non-interventional, cross-sectional study involving 96 neurologists was conducted. Treatment escalation when therapeutic goals were unmet and management errors related to tolerability and safety scenarios of MS therapies were tested using different case-scenarios. Attendance at ECTRIMS was associated with an increase likelihood of treatment escalation in the presence of clinical progression (cognitive decline) and radiological activity (OR 2.44; 95% CI 1.06–5.82) and lower number of management errors (OR 0.26; 95% CI 0.07–0.98). Attendance at ECTRIMS may facilitate therapeutic decisions and reduction in management errors in MS care.

Therapeutic inertia in the management of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder

“…However, as shown in this study, there is still a need to improve therapeutic decisions in order to reduce the prevalence of TI and its magnitude, as new highly effective therapies may be an advantage, but the choice between multiple options might lead to suboptimal decisions. For this reason, it could be helpful to implement continuous updated medical education and training with innovative therapeutic interventions that facilitate the decision-making process, with the aim to achieve better patient outcomes (45)(46)(47). As NMOSD is a rare disease, patients also could benefit from being treated at referral centers, where continuous training and a greater number of patients assisted is usually more common, thus providing the center with higher expertise and specialization.…”

Observational designs in clinical multiple sclerosis research: Particulars, practices and potentialities

“…To further improve the quality of reporting and to prevent incomplete or selective reporting, an extension of STROBE may be considered: Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Effectiveness Research (STROBER) guidelines (von Elm et al, 2007). Furthermore, to increase among neurologists the knowledge about methodological and quality aspects of observational studies, these topics need to be given more attention in scientific MS journals and at MS congresses (Winchester, 2018;Saposnik, 2019).…”