Rome – The digital revolution is changing the face of medicine, and multiple sclerosis is one of the areas where this change is most evident.
By integrating clinical, genetic, MRI and patient-reported measurements through digital platforms, and analyzing this information with Artificial Intelligence software, it will be possible to profoundly rethink disease prevention and treatment.
A vision that fits into a broader approach to brain health and that will be the protagonist of the annual congress of the Italian Association sclerosis multipla (Aism) and its Foundation (Fism), scheduled in Rome from today to Thursday 29 May.
The event focuses on the results achieved so far, the most innovative international projects and new research that aims to exploit Big Data to benefit people with MS.
Artificial intelligence is certainly one of the key tools to promote this paradigm shift, as Sergio Baranzini, professor of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, will explain in his keynote lecture on the first day of the Congress.
The international expert in the use of Big Data in neurology has decided to collaborate with those in Italy who have promoted the collection of Fism for years, has been a pioneer in the collection of data for research - underlines Baranzini - and has had a far-sighted vision with the establishment of the Disease Registry. This is why we have decided to collaborate at various levels with Aism and its Foundation".
The data collection and analysis models developed in the USA will be applied to those contained in the Italian databases with the aim of developing software capable of identifying the evolution of the disease specifically for each individual.
The traditional type of data analysis that models MS and related diseases based on discrete stages of the disease needs to be replaced by models that can assess the time course of the disease: a model that captures the biological onset of the disease and the hidden symptoms.
In this new model, data generated by people living with the disease are essential to define the different clinical expressions of the disease. “A science that combines data from different sources,” explains the scientific director of Aism-Fism, Paola Zaratin, “is a science of collaboration between different actors, first and foremost the people living with the disease and their caregivers.
Patient-generated data are indicators of the impact of a renewed value of health and must contribute to the development of new clinically meaningful descriptors for people with MS, also as criteria for access to treatments”.
The Big Data revolution is all the more significant in light of the new diagnostic criteria for MS, which push towards describing the disease as a continuous process and establish indicators for an increasingly earlier diagnosis, based on the integration of biological and functional data.
"The goal of anticipating the diagnosis as well as the progression of the disease - emphasizes the president of Fism, Mario Alberto Battaglia - must guide research and advocacy in MS. Aism and its Foundation have set a precedent from this point of view, thanks to a far-sighted vision and international collaborations that are paving the way for a global review of the disease path".
Anticipating the diagnosis also means being able to act earlier with rehabilitation interventions and more effectively counteract the action of the disease both in adults and in pediatric age.
“Today we need to broaden our approach and move to increasingly anticipate rehabilitation intervention, which can be considered as a disease-modifying therapy in a broad sense,” says Jaume Sastre Garriga, deputy director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Catalonia (Cemcat), also a guest at the conference, “because it improves the internal processes of the nervous system, making it more resistant to the damage caused by the disease.”
It is within this commitment that the Clinical and Imaging Data Resource promoted by the Progressive MS Alliance, of which Aism with its Foundation is a founding member and on the board of directors, was also born. This platform will provide researchers from all over the world with access to anonymized data from 16 phase III clinical studies, including approximately 15 thousand individual subjects (including clinical data from approximately 223.000 visits and neuroimaging data – MRI – from another approximately 57 thousand visits).
“We expect - the words of the scientific director of Aism-Fisme member of the Industry Forum, Paola Zaratin - that researchers from all over the world will analyze these data in an innovative way to better monitor or predict the progression of the disease and probably it will also help companies to obtain faster and more accurate results from clinical studies”.
During the congress, the results achieved by the 28 projects completed in 2024 will be presented, which will respond to the scientific priorities of Agenda 2025: understanding the causes of the disease and risk factors, diagnosing the disease and identifying new pharmacological and neuro-rehabilitative treatments that can improve the quality of life of people with MS.
The 10th anniversary of the Italian Registry of MS and Related Pathologies will also be celebrated, currently active in 190 centers throughout the country and recognized as one of the largest European databases dedicated to multiple sclerosis, with 94 thousand clinical records.
During the event, the Rita Levi Montalcini Prize will be awarded, which is given each year to a young neurologist.
Article published on May 27, 2025 - 13:15 pm
