Mary Rensel, MD: Integrating Shared Medical Appointments in MS

“The chef teaches them that cooking is exercise. It’s good cognitive exercise because you’re planning and physically moving. It’s also good because you’re usually connecting with someone else in the kitchen.”

At the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) forum, February 27-29, 2020, Mary Rensel, MD, and colleagues unveiled research that focused on the associations of shared medical appointments (SMAs)—group medical visits which combine medical care and patient education—and improvements in outcomes in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Patients observed in the study who attended at least one MS wellness SMA reported small, but significant reductions in body mass index (BMI), from 30.2 ±7.3 at baseline to 28.8 ±7.1 (P = .03), as well as decreases in Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ9) scores, from 7.3 ±5.5 prior to their SMA visit to 5.1 ±5.6 after their SMA visit (P = .001).

Rensel, the director of Pediatric MS and Wellness at the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and assistant professor of neurology at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine sat down with NeurologyLive at ACTRIMS 2020 to give an overview of the study, as well as to expand on the complexities that come with organizing SMAs.

REFERENCE

Abbatermarco J, Cohen J, Udeh B, et al. Improved Multiple Sclerosis Management Using Shared Medical Appointments - A Single Center Experience. Presented at: 2020 ACTRIMS Forum; February 27—29; West Palm Beach, FL. Poster P271.