Evaluating patient care in multiple sclerosis: Impact of combined digital tools and holistic management strategies.

Abstract

Background: Innovations are essential to meet the needs of people with MS (PwMS), particularly in addressing delays in diagnosis and treatment, and in supporting patient self-management.

Objectives: To evaluate the real-world use and outcomes of digital technologies and holistic management strategies for MS at a UK Centre.

Methods: Digital tools for PwMS included Patients Know Best (a personal health record) and CONNECTPlus^® (an educational app). Tools for healthcare professionals included Infoflex (a clinical database with MSProDiscuss for assessing disease progression). A Healthy Lifestyle Clinic was introduced to promote brain health. The impact of these interventions on time-to-diagnosis, time-to-disease-modifying therapy (DMT) initiation, non-elective admissions, and hospital costs was evaluated retrospectively from 2018 to 2023, comparing pre-intervention (2018-2019) with post-intervention (2020-2023) periods, while accounting separately for COVID-19 years (2020-2021).

Results: Trends indicated a higher likelihood of disease progression in patients with delayed MS diagnosis (p < 0.001), and a reduction in time from diagnosis to DMT initiation, from an average of 23.5 to 5.8 months (p = 0.024), post-MS Infoflex disease management database implementation. Non-elective admissions and healthcare costs also decreased compared to neighbouring hospitals.

Conclusions: Digital and holistic interventions were associated with positive trends in MS care delivery. Further research is needed to validate these findings.