Neuroimmunology Fellowship Charts the Leading Edge of Multiple Sclerosis Care
Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and their doctors have gained exciting ground in the past few years. For patients, enhanced treatment options have given patients more healthy years and improved quality of life. For doctors, these advancements mean getting to tell more patients that a recent relapse could likely be their last.
In MS, an overactive immune system attacks the body’s own nerves, interrupting the signals between the brain and spinal cord. Historically, an MS diagnosis meant your condition would likely deteriorate—the outlook today is much more optimistic, with many patients able to manage symptoms and avoid life-altering disability.
As a leader in the field of MS research and care, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center is dedicated to keeping MS care on a forward trajectory. As such, we are introducing a new fellowship program that positions trainees at the forefront of MS research and treatment innovation.
What Makes MS Patients Unique
Multiple sclerosis is a disease that refuses to be labeled as predictable. While MS often afflicts Black and White women and symptoms usually first appear between age 20 and 40, a person of any age, race, and gender can be diagnosed with the condition.
Because MS is unpredictable, each patient has a unique MS journey. As a trainee in the Neuroimmunology Fellowship, you’ll take that journey right alongside them, contributing to patient care and guiding health outcomes.
Diagnosing MS starts with a detailed physical exam, and because MS is both a neurological disorder and an autoimmune disease, patients need holistic care. The same level of attention to detail given during diagnosis is required throughout the treatment process.
When MS patients have a relapse or flare-up, a specific area of the brain will have an inflamed area called a lesion. These lesions show up as a bright spot on an MRI. However, in true MS fashion, it’s possible to have symptoms with no lesions and lesions with no symptoms—and not all MRI machines are advanced enough to detect the lesions.
Clinical Trial
If you have been diagnosed with MS and want to join a clinical trial, call
505-925-4124 for more information.
Providing Unparalleled Care for MS Patients
As the only MS center in the state, UNM HSC is a major referral center both inside and outside of New Mexico. And we continue to expand, investing more resources into our MS center, growing our team and accepting new patients. We are also proud to say that our average wait time to see an MS specialist is less than a month. If a patient’s condition is urgent, we will make time for them and ensure they get the care they need.
Fellows will see ample clinic time and will learn the ins and outs of MS therapies firsthand. Currently, many MS patients are on disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), specifically immunomodulators, so it’s important to understand how each DMT affects the immune system. Though effective at treating MS, DMTs affect B cell and T cell levels may make the body more prone to infections.
Next to understanding the disease itself, effective MS doctors know how to communicate with their patients. It’s important to help them put the disease into perspective by relaying diagnosis and treatment statistics surrounding the disease.
Amid the recent advances in multiple sclerosis treatment and continued growth of our department, we feel now is a critical time to educate more doctors on this complex disease.
Beyond statistics, we want to convey how patients can give themselves the best chance of overcoming MS. For example, we ask our newly diagnosed patients to compare their fight against MS to planning for a successful retirement: Just as investing aggressively and consistently at the beginning of a career ensures a comfortable retirement, starting a DMT regimen at the beginning of the MS journey offers a much better chance of getting off immunosuppressants 20 or 30 years down the road and staying in remission.
As a fellow, you’ll work with other providers, both in the MS clinic seeing patients and in clinical trials discovering new treatments. Because MS is an intricate disease that affects the whole body, treating it requires a team approach. As MS specialists, we’re always collaborating with other subspecialties and ancillary services. So as a fellow, you’ll often work with specialists in a range of fields, including physical and occupational therapy, neuroradiology, urology, pain management and neuro-ophthalmology.
What to Expect in the Neuroimmunology Fellowship
As an incoming fellow, you can design this program as your own. If you have a homegrown research project you’d like to do, we can support that. We also have several ongoing clinical trials to learn from and participate in. Specifically, you’ll learn how to find an expanded disability severity score (EDSS), which we use to objectively categorize the level of disability and track how the patient progresses and how that number changes over time. You’ll also interpret other parameters like the cognitive test, walking test and division test, plus important laboratory values.
Studies are typically double-blind, so neither the patient nor the researchers know who is taking the investigational drug. This offers the advantage of an unbiased perspective on the effects of the medications. What’s more, most MS trials are no longer placebo controlled; that is, the comparator drug is an efficacious DMT. Research participants are seen by an MS specialist at least monthly, so they benefit from a high level of personal attention, and the care they receive during these trials is at no charge to the patients.
In addition to mastering the science behind the treatment, neuroimmunology fellows get an in-depth look at the research processes required by FDA regulation. You’ll follow patient trends in real time and learn to notice patterns in lab values and patient feedback that are signs of potential side effects.
Rounding out the fellowship program are didactic learning sessions on a wide range of topics. Beyond MS, fellows need to be able to recognize and treat other neuroimmunological diseases, such as neuromyelitis optica and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD), and rare diseases like neurosarcoidosis, Behçet’s syndrome, and Susac syndrome.
Overall, the neuroimmunology fellowship promises to be a well-rounded, dynamic experience. Whether interested in research, clinic work, or both, fellows will enjoy an immersive experience full of hands-on opportunities.
Neuroimmunology Fellowship Program
Want to learn more about our Neuroimmunology Fellowship Program?