Ramping up rehab
research
by Timothy Coetzee, PhD
Rehabilitation can help people with MS to achieve their
physical, psychological, social
and vocational potential. But to
convince doctors and insurers
that rehabilitation really does
help, we need the kind of evidence that can only come from
carefully designed and conducted
scientific studies.
Despite the Society’s commitment to finance rehabilitation
research, as little as six years ago
we weren’t getting enough high-quality proposals to review.
A workshop springboard
So in 2005 the National MS
Society engaged some of the best
and brightest in the rehab field at
a workshop cosponsored by the
NIH’s National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research, the
MS Society of Canada, and the
University of Washington MS
Rehabilitation Research & Training Center. This talented group
of MS specialists and rehabilitation experts focused on what was
standing in the way of rigorous
rehabilitation research and how
to make the obstacles disappear.
Training young researchers
The workshop spurred the
Society to establish a new fellowship program to recruit and train
talented clinician-scientists in
MS rehabilitation research. The
Innovative rehabilitation
techniques are needed
to restore function in
people with MS.
fellowship program is “
mentor-based,” meaning that we fund
the mentor knowing that the
mentor—the expert—will be
most able to find student scientists with the greatest potential to
be rehab researchers.
One of our mentors is Marcia Finlayson, PhD (University
of Illinois at Chicago) who is
training fellows to conduct MS
self-management research. “
Self-management” refers to both programs and strategies that enable
people to monitor and manage
their own disease.
One of Dr. Finlayson’s fellows—Matthew Plow, PhD—has
been involved in several research
projects, including an evaluation
of whether Nintendo Wii Fit can
promote physical activity among
people with MS.
Dr. Plow developed new skills
in research methods and analysis
through these mentored experi-
ences. His new skills are paying
off; Dr. Plow, now a researcher
at the Cleveland Clinic Foun-
dation, has earned his own
research grant from the Society.
He is conducting a randomized
controlled trial in 200 people
with MS to see whether meth-
ods of fatigue management and
increasing physical activity that
are often provided in person
by physical and occupational
therapists at medical centers can
be provided through a series of
teleconferences.
Rehab research grows
There are nine trials of rehabilitation interventions in the Society’s
2011 list of Clinical Trials in
MS, compared to only two in
2005. Among those the Society
is funding are a study of cycling
to improve spasticity and a study
of aerobic exercise to improve
cognitive function.
We are proud to have played
a pivotal role in this rehabilitation research revolution. We
must continue to ensure that
innovative rehabilitation techniques are developed to maximize function and help restore
what has been lost by people
living with
MS. n
Dr. Timothy
Coetzee is
the Society’s
chief research
officer.
