Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a frequent chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that affects patients over decades. As the monitoring and treatment of MS become more personalized and complex, the individual assessment and collection of different parameters ranging from clinical assessments via laboratory and imaging data to patient-reported data become increasingly important for innovative patient management in MS. These aspects predestine electronic data processing for use in MS documentation. Such technologies enable the rapid exchange of health information between patients, practitioners, and caregivers, regardless of time and location. In this perspective paper, we present our digital strategy from Dresden, where we are developing the Multiple Sclerosis Documentation System (MSDS) into an eHealth platform that can be used for multiple purposes. Various use cases are presented that implement this software platform and offer an important perspective for the innovative digital patient management in the future. A holistic patient management of the MS, electronically supported by clinical pathways, will have an important impact on other areas of patient care, such as neurorehabilitation.
Highlights
The low average age at diagnosis and an only slightly reduced life expectancy make multiple sclerosis (MS) a long-term disease that is relevant to patients for decades [1, 2]
Electronic patient data management represents a suitable implementation for the MS progress documentation of all the points mentioned
Every part of the treatment process—from diagnosis, treatment selection, and application to patient education and long-term care, including drug treatment and rehabilitation—can be complemented by a quality-assured implementation of information technologies in healthcare (“eHealth”), which takes into account data security standards and concerns [4, 34, 35]. Such eHealth services are generally considered useful for physicians and nurses in neurological practices to improve clinical documentation, data collection, and diagnosis of specific MS symptoms, doctor–patient communication, and patient education [33]
Summary
The low average age at diagnosis and an only slightly reduced life expectancy make multiple sclerosis (MS) a long-term disease that is relevant to patients for decades [1, 2]. The high inter- and intra-individual variability in the course of the disease constantly leads to new treatment situations [3]. Numerous disease data with information about complaints, symptoms, as well as diagnostic and therapeutic measures accumulate within the framework of medical and therapeutic care [4]. The effectiveness must be documented individually for each patient. The differentiation between responders and non-responders of immunomodulatory therapies is not conceivable without efficient specific documentation [6, 7]. When the documentation of psychological symptoms and other medical disciplines are added, the necessity for a complex course documentation becomes clear [8, 9]. A large number of healthcare institutions depend on a timely and holistic exchange of information between the partners involved [10, 11]
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