A real-world survey of more than 300 health care practitioners suggests that the MSProDiscuss tool offers a useful tool for the physician-patient discussion on multiple sclerosis disease progression.
Tjalf Ziemssen, MD
The findings of a real-world study suggest that MSProDiscuss—a validated physician-completed tool based on a set of weighted questions on multiple sclerosis (MS) relapses, symptoms, and impacts experienced by the patient within the prior 6 months—is both usable and useful as a tool for the facilitation of the physician-patient discussion on disease progression in daily clinical practice.
Overall, of the 301 health care practitioners (including 23 MS nurses and 6 neurology nurse practitioners) who tested the tool with 6974 patients with MS, 92% reported that they would recommend the tool to a colleague. Additionally, 92% said that the tool was feasible and 86% noted that they were willing to integrate it into clinical practice.
The data, presented at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC 2020), ultimately suggest that the MSProDiscuss tool captures a structured disease history. It uses a traffic light system-linked output and was developed as an aid for discussing the signs of MS disease progression.
“Key recommendations were to allow for longitudinal follow-up, expand on cognitive assessments, and provide a patient-completed version,” the study authors, including Tjalf Ziemssen, MD, professor of Clinical Neuroscience, head, Multiple Sclerosis Center and Neuroimmunological Laboratory, and director, Division of Neurometabolism, University Clinic Carl-Gustav Carus, wrote. “These are [being] considered in the updated version of MSProDiscuss.”
Tjalf Ziemssen, MD
The findings of a real-world study suggest that MSProDiscuss—a validated physician-completed tool based on a set of weighted questions on multiple sclerosis (MS) relapses, symptoms, and impacts experienced by the patient within the prior 6 months—is both usable and useful as a tool for the facilitation of the physician-patient discussion on disease progression in daily clinical practice.
Overall, of the 301 health care practitioners (including 23 MS nurses and 6 neurology nurse practitioners) who tested the tool with 6974 patients with MS, 92% reported that they would recommend the tool to a colleague. Additionally, 92% said that the tool was feasible and 86% noted that they were willing to integrate it into clinical practice.
The data, presented at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC 2020), ultimately suggest that the MSProDiscuss tool captures a structured disease history. It uses a traffic light system-linked output and was developed as an aid for discussing the signs of MS disease progression.
“Key recommendations were to allow for longitudinal follow-up, expand on cognitive assessments, and provide a patient-completed version,” the study authors, including Tjalf Ziemssen, MD, professor of Clinical Neuroscience, head, Multiple Sclerosis Center and Neuroimmunological Laboratory, and director, Division of Neurometabolism, University Clinic Carl-Gustav Carus, wrote. “These are [being] considered in the updated version of MSProDiscuss.”
Specifically, the tool asks for information such as patient age, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score, presence of relapses in the prior 6 months, and whether or not MRI has been performed in that time frame. From there, the symptoms about which it inquiries include visual, motor, ambulatory, coordination/balance, pain, sensory, bladder/bowel, speech, cognition, and fatigue.
The study assessed the tool via an online qualitative survey that was issued in 34 countries. Health care practitioners completed individual questionnaires (i) after using MSProDiscuss during face-to-face patient consultations and then a final questionnaire (f) to capture the overall experience with the tool. They also provided general feedback and recommendations for improving the tool.