Patients as partners – raising the bar for MS during COVID-19

As with all of the work taking place to improve MS services at present, the coronavirus pandemic has amplified the needs addressed by the Patients as Partners workstream.

Shift.ms have stated concisely that:

‘Those dealing with diagnosis and disease management are now doing so with reduced social support and face-to-face time with clinical teams. Health organisations have reported difficulties in including patients in the delivery of information. On one hand, there's a need for relevant, personalised information. On the other, information expires quickly and becomes obsolete as knowledge evolves.’

As with all of the MS community, Shift.ms have been working hard to address these needs and have begun to develop an online video learning course, ‘PPE for the Mind’ in collaboration with neuropsychologist Jo Johnson. Jo has worked with Neurology Academy to run some interactive webinars with both professionals and those with MS along this theme.

Shift.ms have been able to take this concept further, and align it with the Patients as Partners workstream, trialling:

• a combination of expert content and the networking resources available on Shift.ms
• a collaborative 'peer-led' approach to learning, with MSers co-hosting
• modular structure of pre-recorded videos supported by live sessions

Shift.ms are currently testing the delivery of video learning through their service and are continuing to explore potential funding opportunities to meet the full breadth of the vision for a complete online course. They are anticipating a minimum viable product being available through Shift.ms by the end of the year.

Those who are interested in being involved in developing the course as an expert voice should contact Rob Sloan at rob@shift.ms.