SM - so what ...?

The conference, which took place on September 10-11, 2022, gathered over 20 experts from various fields: not only neurologists, but also infectious disease specialists, psychologists, nutritionists, physiotherapists. Participants had the opportunity to listen to a total of over 10 hours of lectures and discussion panels, as well as take part in individual consultations with specialists. Especially the latter form met with great interest of patients: queues to some specialists were so long that the duty hours scheduled for 30 or 60 minutes were even extended several times.

Come back after 3 years

- We returned to Gdańsk with conferences after 3 years. We were supposed to come back sooner, but we postponed the date several times due to COVID. Well, we met both "old friends" (ie people who participated in previous editions of conferences in Gdańsk and Wrocław) and people who were hosted for the first time. - says Monika Łada, president of the StwardrzenieRozsiane.Info Foundation - Many things were the same as three years ago. Queues of people willing for individual consultations were forming again. Again, patients exchanged their observations about the disease in the lobby and shared their stories. Again, the meeting was held at the hospitable premises of the Marshal's Office of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. But there were also many novelties. The most important is, of course, the achievements of the Content Partner of our conference: the Department of Adult Neurology of the University Clinical Center. During the 2019 conference, professor Bartosz Karaszewski, the head of the clinic, announced the establishment of the MS Treatment Center. Now, the conference participants could listen to the effects of Prof. Karaszewski and his team - added Monika Łada.

In 2021, in the structures of the clinic headed by prof. Karaszewski, a subunit dedicated to patients with MS was created. Demyelinating Diseases Department - The MS Center is a center that focuses precisely on comprehensive (interdisciplinary) care for patients with multiple sclerosis and other rarer diseases of the nervous system with a similar course. One of the forms of operation of the center is educating patients and actively involving them in the diagnostic and therapeutic process. The SM Center has, among others, outpatient clinic as part of the multiple sclerosis treatment program, and there are specialists in various fields who work with MS patients: neurologists, ophthalmologist, urologist, gynecologist, psychologists, nutritionist, neurologist, physiotherapists, nurse.

The Foundation will prepare "Primer SM"

Fundacja StwardrzenieRozsiane.Info will soon implement several more projects dedicated to people with MS, but not only. One of them is the campaign for people with invisible disabilities (OzNN). The Foundation wants to sensitize the society to the subject of invisible disabilities and invisible symptoms of diseases. The conference participants learned about the basic assumptions of the "(In) Visible" campaign, they also saw the premiere of the animation created for the project. The (In) Visible pilot is planned for this year in the Tri-City.

Another project that the foundation wants to implement in the near future is the "Primer for MS", or "manual" for newly diagnosed patients on how to deal with MS. - The publication will be issued in hardcover, available free of charge, but we have launched a special fundraiser for its preparation - says Monika Łada.

Another nationwide edition of the conference "SM - and so what ...?" is planned on May 27-28, 2023, also in Gdańsk.