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Summary of a Workshop on Research in Multiple Sclerosis, April 5-6, 2001 (2001)

Chapter: Appendix A: List of Report Recommendations

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: List of Report Recommendations." Institute of Medicine. 2001. Summary of a Workshop on Research in Multiple Sclerosis, April 5-6, 2001. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10116.
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APPENDIX A: LIST OF REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations for Future Research on Disease Mechanisms

RECOMMENDATION 1: Research on the pathological changes underlying the natural course of MS should be emphasized because it provides the key to predicting disease course in individual patients, understanding the physiological basis of MS, and a basis for developing improved therapeutic approaches.

RECOMMENDATION 2: Research should be pursued to identify how neurons are damaged in MS, how this damage can be prevented, and how oligodendrocytes and astrocytes are involved in damage and repair processes.

RECOMMENDATION 3: The genes that underlie genetic susceptibility to MS should be identified, because genetic information offers such a powerful tool to elucidate fundamental disease processes and prognosis, and to develop new therapeutic approaches.

RECOMMENDATION 4: Because the discovery of an MS pathogen would likely provide the single most important clue for identifying effective treatments, this search must remain a high priority, but should be conducted using powerful new and efficient methods.

RECOMMENDATION 5: Research to identify the cascade of immune system events that culminates in the destruction of myelin should remain a priority.

RECOMMENDATION 6: The power of neuroimaging as a tool for basic research and for clinical assessment should be taken advantage of more extensively.

RECOMMENDATION 7: Animal models should be developed that more faithfully mirror the features of MS and permit the analysis of how specific molecules and cells contribute to the disease process.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: List of Report Recommendations." Institute of Medicine. 2001. Summary of a Workshop on Research in Multiple Sclerosis, April 5-6, 2001. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10116.
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Recommendations for Future Research on Disease Management

Therapeutics

RECOMMENDATION 8: Strategies for protection and repair of neural cells, including the use of neuroprotective factors as well as stem cells, hold great promise for the treatment of MS and should be a major research priority.

RECOMMENDATION 9: New, more effective therapeutic approaches to symptomatic management should be pursued, including those directed at neuropathic pain and sensory disturbances.

RECOMMENDATION 10: In the absence of any fully effective therapies, integrated approaches for the delivery of currently available therapeutic agents should be investigated.

RECOMMENDATION 11: Better strategies should be developed to extract the maximum possible scientific value from MS clinical trials.

Quality of Life

RECOMMENDATION 12: Health status assessment methods for people with MS should be further developed and validated to increase the reliability and power of clinical trials and to improve individual patient care.

RECOMMENDATION 13: Research strategies aimed at improving the ability of people with MS to adapt and function should be developed in partnership with research practitioners, managers, and patients; toward this end, a series of forums to identify the most pressing needs experienced by people with MS should be convened.

RECOMMENDATION 17: New strategies should be developed to encourage more integration among the different disciplines that support and conduct research relevant to improving the quality of life for people with MS.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: List of Report Recommendations." Institute of Medicine. 2001. Summary of a Workshop on Research in Multiple Sclerosis, April 5-6, 2001. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10116.
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Page 17

Recommendations for Building and Supporting the Research Enterprise

RECOMMENDATION 14: New researchers should be actively recruited to work in MS, and training programs should be designed to foster productive interactions with established investigators both within and outside the MS research community.

RECOMMENDATION 15: Concerted efforts should be made to stimulate enduring interdisciplinary collaborations among researchers in the biological and non-biological sciences relevant to MS and to recruit researchers from other fields into MS research.

RECOMMENDATION 16: Programs to increase research efficiency should be developed, including collaborations to enable expensive large-scale projects (for example, clinical trials, genome screens) and to organize collection of scarce resources (for example, human tissue).

RECOMMENDATION 18: To protect against investing research resources on false leads, there should be an organizational structure to promote efficient testing of new claims for MS pathogens and disease markers.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: List of Report Recommendations." Institute of Medicine. 2001. Summary of a Workshop on Research in Multiple Sclerosis, April 5-6, 2001. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10116.
×

Page 18

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: List of Report Recommendations." Institute of Medicine. 2001. Summary of a Workshop on Research in Multiple Sclerosis, April 5-6, 2001. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10116.
×
Page 15
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: List of Report Recommendations." Institute of Medicine. 2001. Summary of a Workshop on Research in Multiple Sclerosis, April 5-6, 2001. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10116.
×
Page 16
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: List of Report Recommendations." Institute of Medicine. 2001. Summary of a Workshop on Research in Multiple Sclerosis, April 5-6, 2001. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10116.
×
Page 17
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: List of Report Recommendations." Institute of Medicine. 2001. Summary of a Workshop on Research in Multiple Sclerosis, April 5-6, 2001. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10116.
×
Page 18
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Multiple Sclerosis: Current Status and Strategies for the Future identifies promising areas of multiple sclerosis (MS) research based on a strategic analysis of the current state of knowledge. The report was written by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on MS Research Strategies, and on April 2001, the Committee held a workshop to advance research recommended by the report. The specific goals of the workshop were to disseminate information about the report, foster collaboration, and serve as a launch pad for implementation of the report's recommendations.

Summary of a Workshop on Research in Multiple Sclerosis, April5-6,2001 presents the reports from each breakout group and summarizes the plenary session discussion. This workshop summary contains particular viewpoints attributed to individual participants or to groups of participants (including breakout groups), but does not contain statements about what "the workshop" or "all its participants" concluded.

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