title: Telemedicine for Monitoring MS Activity and Progression.
abstract: Telemedicine (TM) is defined as the exchange of medical information between two different physical places. The aims of TM are to provide services that cannot easily be provided face-to-face and improve the efficiency of existing ones. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating disease characterized by a heterogeneous array of symptoms that can lead to severe impairment and may impact on accessibility to medical services, patient's ability to function, and overall health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The use of TM to clinically monitor MS patients has demonstrated benefits by improving HRQoL and reducing associated medical costs. Patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures have been used in TM interventions, registries, and cost-efficiency studies because they offer valuable information about patient's perspective of MS disease burden. Moreover, TM has shown acceptable reliability in the assessment of the neurological impairment by Kurtzke expanded disability status scale (EDSS) and has the potential to develop more sensitive measures, such as average daily walking activity, to closely monitor MS disease progression in real environment. It is likely that the use of TM will continue to increase in the following years but larger and controlled studies are necessary to confirm the beneficial effects of TM to deliver an optimal care for patients with MS.
authors.affiliation: Center of Neuroimmunology and Department of Neurology, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Nuria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sola-Valls
authors.affiliation: Center of Neuroimmunology and Department of Neurology, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. yblanco@clinic.ub.es.|Service of Neurology, Hospital Clinic and Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Center of Neuroimmunology, Universitat de Barcelona, Villarroel 170, 08036, Barcelona, Spain. yblanco@clinic.ub.es.
authors.forename: Yolanda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Blanco
authors.affiliation: Center of Neuroimmunology and Department of Neurology, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sepúlveda
authors.affiliation: Center of Neuroimmunology and Department of Neurology, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.|Service of Neurology, Hospital Clinic and Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Center of Neuroimmunology, Universitat de Barcelona, Villarroel 170, 08036, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Eugenia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martinez-Hernandez
authors.affiliation: Center of Neuroimmunology and Department of Neurology, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.|Service of Neurology, Hospital Clinic and Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Center of Neuroimmunology, Universitat de Barcelona, Villarroel 170, 08036, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saiz
keywords: Adherence; Clinical assessment; Daily walking activity; Disease activity; Disease progression; Electronic devices; Multiple sclerosis; Physical intervention; Registries and databases; Remote; Remote monitoring; Telemedicine; Teleneurology