Multiple Sclerosis from A to Z: The Television Series

In Seattle: UWTV, 8:00 PM, PST the first Tuesday of each month, starting February 2, 2010.
UWTV website, including episodes and podcasts, available anytime: http://www.uwtv.org/video/series.aspx?id=1549962613

This is a TV series on multiple sclerosis for MS patients, their families, and health care professionals. The speakers in this program are prominent MS clinicians and researchers from North America and Canada. This TV series will offer the opportunity to electronically “meet” and learn from them. Please consult the websites shown above for information about where and when this series can be seen.

In the opening program on February 2, 2010, Dr. George H. Kraft, Director of the Western MS Center at the University of Washington and P.I. of the MS Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, will review the subsequent program topics, along with information about the speakers. In addition, he will present an overview of current thinking about multiple sclerosis.

The second program on March 2, 2010 will be presented by the distinguished MS researcher and clinician, Dr. Jock Murray. Dr. Murray is acknowledged as the world’s leading expert on the history of MS. He is from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he has served as dean of Dalhousie Medical School, chairman of the Department of Neurology, and founder and director of the MS Clinic.

The 3rd program in this series will be on April 6, 2010, and will be a live meeting from Kane Hall, with an audience organized by the Greater Northwest Chapter of the National MS Society. The program will deal with the important topic of jobs for persons with MS. This meeting will feature Trevis Gleason from the National MS Society, Dr. Kurt Johnson from the U.W. Multiple Sclerosis Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, Ray Heacox, President and General Manager of KING5 and KONG TV stations in Seattle, and Andrea Brenneke, an attorney with MacDonald, Hoague & Bayless in Seattle.

The program on May 4, 2010 will feature one of the leading researchers from our MS Research and Training Center, Dr. Charles Bombardier. Dr. Bombardier is a psychologist who is an expert on depression in MS. He will discuss the prevalence of depression in MS and ways in which it can be evaluated and managed, including the role of exercise in its management.

On June 1, 2010, the speaker will be Dr. John Kurtzke. Nationally and internationally, his is the most recognized name in the MS field. Everyone who has MS is rated for their level of disability by a scale developed by Dr. Kurtzke —called the Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). The EDSS is the standard measure of the effectiveness of MS medications in clinical trials throughout the world. Dr. Kurtzke is also acknowledged as one of the leading researchers of the epidemiology of MS. In this 5th program of the series he will present his research showing the manner of transmission of the disease and give clues to its cause. For his many major research achievements, Dr. Kurtzke has been awarded the highest honor of the National MS Society. Dr. Kurtzke will come from Washington, DC, to Seattle for his presentation.

On July 6, 2010, the presentation will be by another member of the MS Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, Dr. Dawn Ehde. Dr. Ehde is also the director of the MS Research Training Fellowship program at the University of Washington. She is an expert on the common, but complex, problem of pain in MS, and her research has focused on innovative methods to manage it. She will talk on pain and the most common MS symptom, first reported by researchers at the University of Washington, fatigue.

The August 3, 2010 presentation will be a team effort by clinicians from the Western M.S. Center. Doctors Mary Pepping and Myron Goldberg, both psychologists at the Center, will discuss assessment of cognitive problems brought on by MS, and ways to manage them. Dr. Pepping has participated in writing the National MS Society’s policy paper on cognitive impairment in MS.

For the 8th presentation on September 7, 2010, we will again have an outside speaker, Dr. Alan Bowling. Dr. Bowling is from Denver and is internationally acknowledged as the leading medical expert on the use of complementary and alternative medicine for persons with MS, with a popular book and widely used website on this topic. He will discuss the use of vitamins, herbs, marijuana, and other non-standard treatments for this disease.

On October 5, 2010, the final presentation, we are pleased to have Dr. John Richert, Executive Vice President of Research and Clinical Programs for the national MS Society in New York. He will share with us highlights of MS research in 2010. Many major new developments in the field of MS are anticipated over the course of this year, and there is no better person to present these findings than Dr. Richert, whose hand is on the pulse of world-wide MS research.

MS A-Z has been supported by an educational grant from Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Inc