The UK Multiple Sclerosis Register (UKMSR) was pleased to have had seven abstracts and six presentations accepted based on UK MS Register Data at European Committee Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) 2022 in Amsterdam last month.
ECTRIMS is held once a year and is attended by over 7000 Academics, Researchers and Clinicians in the field of MS and aims to benefit people with Multiple Sclerosis by engaging professionals in the promotion and enhancement of research, learning and care.
The peer reviewed research that was featured at ECTRIMS included international collaborations with groups such as the Register Collaboration Network in Multiple Sclerosis, a European network of MS Registers working to accelerate research highlights for innovative care and treatment for people with MS.
Other collaborations featured were with Imperial College London which has resulted in developing a set of online cognitive tests specific to MS. To date, this study is the largest study in cognition and MS and has identified a specific cognitive fingerprint that could help with early MS diagnosis.
Apart from the four abstracts authored directly by members of the UKMSR team, the newest member of the team, Research Analyst Sarah Knowles, at her first ever conference, was invited to present to a crowd of more than 3000 on her work on late onset MS. She found people having a disease onset later in life tended to be more disabled at diagnosis with more motor symptoms and a more progressive disease course. With these effects are more pronounced the older you are when initial symptoms begin. The research suggests that it may therefore be useful to trial alternative treatment options in older populations, a group that is often excluded in clinical trials.
The UKMSR is open to external researchers to apply to conduct their own research via the UKMSR platform. One such researcher, Federica Picariello, based at Kings College London presented on the underlying factors that affect fatigue and MS using responses from the UKMSR data.
Associate Professor Rod Middleton, CI of the UKMSR said “It is very exciting to see the extent that the UKMSR has grown in reputation over the last 12 years and its thrilling to see the impact our data has across all areas of MS”
The UKMSR also had a stand at the conference which allowed them to show case the work they are doing and make new meaningful collaborations across the globe.
The UK MS Register is one of thirteen Research Centres of Excellence based in Population Data Science at Swansea University.