Research Update 1/03/2013
The Neurology Research Review has published a supplement focussed on Multiple Sclerosis. We would like to thank the Research Review for allowing us to share the supplement.
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Overview - (taken directly from the supplement)
Our understanding of MS, like many areas of neurology, has undergone a revolution driven by neuroimaging and molecular biology. In this review we discuss new thinking on the diagnosis of MS based on MRI findings, and discuss subtypes of neuroinflammation that we are separating off from MS, particularly neuromyelitis optica (NMO).
We will also try to bring some clarity to a wave of exciting, complex and expensive treatments that have appeared for MS that will transform the way we think about and manage the condition.
Wallace Brownlee has co-edited this review. Wallace has just finished his NZ training as a neurologist and is about to depart for the UK to take up a fellowship in neuroinflammatory disorders. He is part of a new wave of young neurologists taking an active interest in the management of MS and related disorders.
We hope you find this special issue interesting and look forward to hearing your comments.
Kind Regards,
Barry
Dr Barry Snow
barrysnow@researchreview.co.nz
Medical Professionals can subscribe to the quaterly Review via www.researchreview.co.nz
MS Focus 2010
A Seminar on research, rehabilitation and emerging treatments for multiple sclerosis
George Jelinek
Evidence, bias and conflict of interest in research and publication
Dr George Jelinek was diagnosed with MS in 1999. He was determined not to follow the fate of his mother who died with MS in 1981 totally incapacitated, unable to feed or care for herself.
As a Professor in Emergency Medicine with a background as Editor-in-Chief of a major medical journal he began to sort through the medical literature on MS. He is convinced that with a commitment to the right lifestyle changes, there is the real probablility that many people with MS can live long, healthy lives relatively free of the usual problems associated with the illness.
Dr. George Jelinek is the author of a number of books on multiple sclerosis and also has a website Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis
Bruce Taylor
Epidemiology of MS and the role of gene environment
A medical graduate of the University of Tasmaina, he completed neurology training in Perth Western Australia before completing fellowship training at the Mayo Clinic Rochester Minnesota.
On returning to Australia he worked as a consultant neurologist at the Royal Hobart Hospital and in 2004 accepted an academic neurology appointment at the University of Otago, Christchurch School of Medicine. In 2007 he was successful in obtaining a principal research fellowship in MS research at the Menzies Research Institute in Hobart as a conjoint position with the Royal Hobart Hospital. His main areas of research interest are in the epidemiology of MS and the role of gene environment interaction in the aetiology of MS.
Deborah Mason
Emerging Treatments in MS
Started working life as a physiotherapist before completing a BSc at the University of Western Ontario Canada. In 1988 she returned to New Zealand to attend medical school in Otago (MBChB 1992).
Following medical school she completed physician training and neurology in Auckland, New Zealand. One year of neurology training was spent as the travelling Australasian clinical fellow at the Royal Free Hospital in London, England followed by a two year fellowship in MS at the London Health Sciences University Hospital in London Ontario. In 2003 Dr Mason returned to New Zealand to take up a consultant neurology position at Christchurch Hospital. In addition to her hospital position she is the Medical Director for MSNZ.
Kathryn McPherson
Rehabilitation & Multiple Sclerosis
Dr Kathryn McPherson is the Professor of Rehabilition for the Person Centred Research Centre, which is one of the research centres making up the Health & Rehabilitation Research Institute at AUT University.
The centre's research focuses on enhancing understanding of disability, investigating outcomes, improving the effectiveness of rehabilitation processes. The centre focuses mainly on people who have had a brain injury, stroke, have multiple sclerosis.