Laura Julian, PhD: The Floodlight Open MS Database

“We wanted to figure out how we can monitor patients in between those clinic visits and how we can complement what the neurologist does in those clinic visits.”

In multiple sclerosis (MS), the number of clinic visits each year for the average patient is usually small, ranging from 2 to 3 visits each year. During each visit, the neurologist will take measurements to get an understanding of the patient's disease progression and the effectiveness of their treatment. But with so little time with each patient, getting an accurate representation of their day-to-day as it relates to their disease is difficult.

Enter: Floodlight Open.

Developed by Genentech, the open database is intended to be a study of the day-to-day impact of MS on the patients who have it. It utilizes a smartphone app to have patients record their disease measurements with practical tools, in order to better inform themselves, as well as their physicians, of their disease status and progression.

To find out more about the study and the tool, and why Genentech decided to develop it, NeurologyLive sat down with Laura Julian, PhD, the principal medical science director at Genentech. Julian spoke about the decisions behind the tools being used for measurement, and what the neurologists can get from the data.