- Memorial Healthcare’s neurology department is growing and engaged in cutting-edge research
- New blood tests for MS patients are being tested that will help doctors pinpoint stage of disease and best drug to slow debilitating effects
- Multi-disciplinary team approach cuts testing and diagnosis process to one day
Rany Aburashed, D.O.
Neurologist Rany Aburashed, D.O., is leading Memorial Healthcare’s clinical renaissance and putting it on the map nationally by pioneering clinic-based research on a new blood test for multiple sclerosis on thousands of patients.
Memorial Healthcare, a small 161-bed rural referral center in central Michigan, is believed to be the only hospital in the U.S. where the Simoa Analyzer MS blood test technology is being tested, Aburashed said. There are about 100 universities that are testing the MS blood test technology on animals, experts said.
Aburashed also has helped to create Memorial’s Institute Institute for Neurosciences and Multiple Sclerosis that offers patients a multi-disciplinary approach to MS care that is in effect, “one-stop shopping” for co-located neurology, orthopedics, rehabilitation and wellness programs.
“The Europeans tend to be ahead of us in terms of research into MS. They are much more aggressive after the disease and treatment,” Aburashed said. “When we saw more and more evidence from the European data on neurofilaments that was not only predictive of MS but also was predictive of (how effective is the) drug working. I realized this was going to the future of MS care over the next five years and we had to have it.”
While the MS blood test using “neurofilament light chain” technology, or NfL, is still under clinical trials in the U.S. and not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it is also widely being researched in Europe.
The blood test detects NfL, a structural protein that forms part of the internal skeleton of neurons. When brain neurons are damaged or dying, the protein leaks out into the fluid that covers the brain and spinal cord. From there, the brain and spinal fluid goes into the bloodstream.
By hard work and determination, Aburashed earlier this year won approval from the hospital’s institutional review board to test the NfL technology in a five-year trial. He also was able to secure the machine to test NfL, the Simoa Analyzer, from Quanterix Corp, a Billerica, Mass.-based biotech company.
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