ECTRIMS Patient Community Day 2025

Last year, I was honored to be able to attend and cover the annual congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS). It’s the largest gathering of MS medical professionals in the world and was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, and it was an overwhelming experience for me. Overwhelming in the amount of information being shared and also overwhelming for me physically. It took me a good few weeks to recover fully.

This year’s event took place in Barcelona, Spain, and while I had an opportunity to attend and participate, I had to pass. Both physical limitations and a short deadline for my next book project left me with no real decision to make this year: It just wasn’t going to happen for me to attend in person.

The Patient Community Day Forum

Like last year, there was a Patient Community Day at the end of the congress. During the session, leaders in their medical fields, who had presented research papers and clinical reviews to their international peers earlier in the week, sat in front of a live audience of 400 people with MS, as well as many hundreds more of us attending online from all over the world.

The program is available for anyone to watch in English or Spanish via video download.

While the presenters never talked down to their patient audience, they did shave a bit of the hard, technical edges off of the science, so that everyday people who live with MS could understand the gist of the medical conversations and presentations being given.

Nurses’ Roles, Emerging Therapies, AI, and More

The first session included topics such as the special role MS nurses play during key stages of the disease, the newest developments in research, important advances in diagnosis, emerging therapies, and rehabilitation and lifestyle modifications. It was followed by a Q&A session, with questions coming from those in the room as well as from around the world.

The second session covered biomarkers, smoldering MS, cognition, genetics, imaging, artificial intelligence, and the role of infections and vaccinations in MS.

Both sessions were moderated by Brett Drummond, who many of you will know from MStranslate out of Australia.

A Podcast Series Is Also Available

For those of you who might want to go deeper into the science that was shared at ECTRIMS this year, there’s a podcast series that posted each day of the congress with highlights of some of the most important information shared over the week. I’d highly encourage a listen if you’re interested in what the next 2 to 10 years will look like on the cutting edge of multiple sclerosis science.

One topic that made a lot of news around the world was the revision of the McDonald Diagnostic Criteria for MS. The podcast dedicated to this topic is well worth a listen, particularly for those new to the MS club.

Rainy Day Listening and Reading

Like many — professionals and patients alike — I’ll be spending a good few rainy afternoons listening back to the ECTRIMS podcasts, watching videos from the congress, and reading research papers that were presented at the event. But first, this book deadline ...

Wishing you and your family the best of health.

Cheers,

Trevis