ELC Education Day 2024

ELC Education Day 2024 was a great success! The ELC Foundation hosted an educational event for patients with multiple sclerosis. The event included presentations by Dr. Katz and Dr. Bouley, a health fair, brunch and lively Q&A!

The ELC Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)3 supporting the needs of patients with multiple sclerosis through educational events and a financial assistance program. ELC Education Day 2024 was one of the many events supported by the foundation. The event was coordinated in collaboration with The Elliot Lewis Center.

At Education Day, Dr. Joshua Katz discussed the challenges of treating progressive MS and the limitations of current disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). He highlighted the recent Tolebrutinib trial results and other emerging BTK inhibitor drugs that promise effective treatments for progressive MS in the very near future. He also explored research on dosing strategies for Ocrelizumab and the controversy about de-escalation from high efficacy treatment.

Dr. Andrew Bouley explored the data behind medical cannabis and diet. While data are conflicted, medical cannabis has the best evidence for spasticity and chronic pain management in patients with MS. Several diets have shown improvement in fatigue in MS patients. The Mediterranean and MIND diets may also help with cognition, reducing inflammatory biomarkers, and reducing atrophy. Dr. Bouley also briefly discussed the OCTAVE MS Disease Activity blood test as a new biomarker for MS inflammation.