A Call to Action for Progressive MS Research: Kathy Zackowski, PhD, OTR

“The idea is really to encourage clinicians as well as researchers to have a better awareness of some of the issues that are at stake for people with progressive MS... the more we can stay aware by reading and talking with one another, the better.”

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, along with other multiple sclerosis (MS) organizations from across the world that make up the International Progressive MS Alliance, has called for action in the field of progressive MS to prioritize certain areas of research in a recent paper. The paper identified important issues in progressive MS that need more research and funding.

The authors, including first Kathy Zackowski, PhD, OTR, senior director of patient management, care, and rehabilitation research, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, isolated 4 key areas that they believe need to be targeted in progressive MS research: fatigue, pain, mobility and upper extremity impairment, and cognitive impairment. They stressed the importance of investigating these areas to push management in progressive MS forward, in addition to the work done in these areas for relapsing MS, which is where most research is currently focused.

NeurologyLive spoke with Zackowski to learn more about further research she would like to see conducted in progressive MS. She encouraged people to read the paper published in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal and to spread word of the need for research in progressive MS.

REFERENCE

Zackowski KM, Freeman J, Brichetto G, et al. Prioritizing progressive MS rehabilitation research: A call from the International Progressive MS Alliance. Mult Scler J. Published online March 15, 2021. doi: 10.1177/1352458521999970