Gavin Giovannoni: Barriers exist at every stage in the diagnosis and treatment of multiple sclerosis

There are many barriers to early treatment and diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

“The big barrier is our healthcare system, to be honest with you. Our healthcare system is not optimized for early diagnosis. How do we get people with symptoms of MS into the healthcare system as quickly as possible? Once they are in the system they need to be diagnosed as quickly as possible. So that is access to resources, essentially. Then we’ve got to overcome therapeutic nihilism. There is still a message out there, or there is a feeling out there, that these treatments aren’t that effective. I think they are wrong. We need to change those perceptions so that they actually start treating MS in the same way as our colleagues in the rheumatology field treat joints in rheumatoid arthritis, or our nephrology colleagues treat kidneys in kidney transplantation. It is how you protect that end organ and stop it from being damaged.”

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