Contributions
Abstract: 51
Type: Oral
Multiple sclerosis (MS) care and research face multiple challenges in the Middle East region. The rapidly rising prevalence of the disease in this region, is putting a strain on medical and financial resources. Lack of awareness in the medical community leading to delayed or wrong diagnosis, is still a major drawback. There is an urgent need to improve such awareness by local educational symposia as well as educational grants to train MS specialists in major European and North American medical centers. MS therapies are quite expensive and are nearly always reimbursed by governmental agencies in Middle Eastern countries. Unfortunately, with the recent political and economic instability in the region, the governments have been less inclined to cover such expensive medications especially the most recent ones. The worsening economic and security situation in many Middle Eastern countries, is also affecting the overall healthcare quality provided to MS patients including availability of MS specialists, radiological facilities, physical therapy centers and other supporting services. Legislations regarding handicapped persons including public facilities, jobs, and discrimination are still lagging behind in our region as compared to the West. Public awareness of the disease, although significantly improved over the last decade, is still a major challenge in our region, leading to delayed medical referral, use of unproven or unconventional therapies, and poor adherence to treatment.
Research in the field of MS is one of the major challenges we are currently facing in the Middle East. Short of few exceptions, well structured large patient registries, which are the basis of good clinical research, are lacking in the Middle East. MENACTRIMS launched earlier this year the MENACTRIMS Registry Project which aims at establishing and unifying registries all over the Middle East and North Africa region. This project will for the first time provide a large data base from the region and will help define the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of MS in the region. The research infrastructure, including human resources, laboratories, equipment and funding is also lacking in the Middle East, and is another major challenge that need to be addressed in the near future.
Disclosure: I received honoraria, consulting/speaker fees, and research grants from: Merck-Serono, Biogen, Bayer, Novartis, and Sanofi
Abstract: 51
Type: Oral
Multiple sclerosis (MS) care and research face multiple challenges in the Middle East region. The rapidly rising prevalence of the disease in this region, is putting a strain on medical and financial resources. Lack of awareness in the medical community leading to delayed or wrong diagnosis, is still a major drawback. There is an urgent need to improve such awareness by local educational symposia as well as educational grants to train MS specialists in major European and North American medical centers. MS therapies are quite expensive and are nearly always reimbursed by governmental agencies in Middle Eastern countries. Unfortunately, with the recent political and economic instability in the region, the governments have been less inclined to cover such expensive medications especially the most recent ones. The worsening economic and security situation in many Middle Eastern countries, is also affecting the overall healthcare quality provided to MS patients including availability of MS specialists, radiological facilities, physical therapy centers and other supporting services. Legislations regarding handicapped persons including public facilities, jobs, and discrimination are still lagging behind in our region as compared to the West. Public awareness of the disease, although significantly improved over the last decade, is still a major challenge in our region, leading to delayed medical referral, use of unproven or unconventional therapies, and poor adherence to treatment.
Research in the field of MS is one of the major challenges we are currently facing in the Middle East. Short of few exceptions, well structured large patient registries, which are the basis of good clinical research, are lacking in the Middle East. MENACTRIMS launched earlier this year the MENACTRIMS Registry Project which aims at establishing and unifying registries all over the Middle East and North Africa region. This project will for the first time provide a large data base from the region and will help define the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of MS in the region. The research infrastructure, including human resources, laboratories, equipment and funding is also lacking in the Middle East, and is another major challenge that need to be addressed in the near future.
Disclosure: I received honoraria, consulting/speaker fees, and research grants from: Merck-Serono, Biogen, Bayer, Novartis, and Sanofi