Grassroot efforts towards diversity in MS care and research: Win-win for patients and science

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis affects many more women than men, with a debatable increase in the proportion of women affected by the disease over the past century ( Simpson et al., 2015 Jul Simpson S. Jr., Taylor B.V., van der Mei I.The role of epidemiology in MS research: past successes, current challenges and future potential. Mult. Scler.. 2015;21(8):969–77. doi: 10.1177/1352458515574896. PMID:25767125. Google Scholar ). The sex ratio of MS care providers has also changed over the past couple of decades but the pace has been slower than expected, especially for leadership positions ( Thomson et al., 2019 Apr 9 Thomson A. Horne R. Chung C. Marta M. Giovannoni G. Palace J. Dobson R. Visibility and representation of women in multiple sclerosis research. Neurology. 2019; 92 (PMID:30894447): 713-719 Crossref PubMed Scopus (7) Google Scholar ). Along the same lines, MS has been traditionally a disease of people with North European ancestry. It is now recognized that MS affects all races, although there are limited data on incidence and prevalence in poor countries for multiple reasons including a small number of neurologists and epidemiologists, and few MRI scanners ( Simpson et al., 2015 Jul Simpson S. Jr., Taylor B.V., van der Mei I.The role of epidemiology in MS research: past successes, current challenges and future potential. Mult. Scler.. 2015;21(8):969–77. doi: 10.1177/1352458515574896. PMID:25767125. Google Scholar ). Despite those trends, there is just a small proportion of MS care providers and thought or key opinion leaders who are not of North European descent. What are we doing to bring a culture of diversity to serve an increasingly varied patient population?