Making Doctors Smarter About MS.

The National MS Society seeks to continually improve the quality of care available to people with MS--whether they receive care from an MS specialist or not. To meet the need, the Society created the Alliance for Educational Excellence in MS. Its mission: to disseminate current information about MS to non-MS specialist physicians--and to change their behavior in caring for their patients with MS. For example, currently, some 100,000 people with MS are receiving disease-modifying therapy, but as many as 100,000 others might benefit from treatment.

The Alliance program awards grants of up to $100,000 for continuing medical education programs on MS, produced in collaboration with professional staff at the Society. The first two recipients were the American Academy of Neurology and Temple University School of Medicine. Two new projects began this July:

The Mount Sinai School of Medicine program, led by Dr. Fred Lublin and other leading MS specialists, is reaching neurologists nationwide via videoconferencing and the Internet. The team discusses available treatments, and how and when to treat people with MS.

The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center program, under the directorship of Dr. Corey C. Ford, is providing Internet telecasts and archived materials to non-MS specialist physicians--focusing specifically on the newer, more successful disease-modifying MS treatments, and how they can be integrated into private practice patterns.

Debra B. Entin, the National MS Society's director of Professional Education Programs, said: "One of the benefits of the Alliance is that it gives the Society the opportunity to work with some of the best minds in continuing medical education. Equally important, it extends the Society's reach to physicians nationwide."

For further information, contact Debra Entin, MS, RN, director of Professional Education Programs, National MS Society at 212-476-0456 or e-mail: <[e-mail]>.