With the countdown to this year’s QuDoS in MS recognition event on Saturday 25th March underway, behind the scenes our expert judging panel is hard at work reviewing the myriad examples of innovation and excellence in MS care management and service delivery nominated for recognition in 2023.

But what exactly makes MS care outstanding, and why should these practices be shared? To find out, pharmaphorum caught up with returning judge David Martin.

As CEO of the MS Trust, Martin has certainly been well placed to witness changes across MS care in recent years. Since taking on the role in 2017, he has steered the organisation through a global pandemic, NHS staffing shortages, burnout, and funding challenges. Combined, these experiences have given him a keen understanding of not just the current landscape of MS care, but also how different Trusts can work together to forge the path ahead.

“The MS sector is fantastic,” he says. “I’ve met so many wonderful people, and it’s changed quite considerably over the last five years or so. We’ve got so many disease-modifying treatments; while everybody wants to cure MS, I’m seeing with those treatments that DMTs are really dialling down some of those symptoms that can have such an adverse quality on people’s lives. I’ve got a sense that people in the MS sector are really determined to make a difference. Nobody is just sitting around twiddling their thumbs, waiting for this cure to come along.”

Under Martin’s leadership, championing outstanding MS care has remained a significant focal point for the organisation. As he explains, this drive to spotlight best practices and improve care for patients across the nation is what motivated him to join QuDoS’s expert judging panel.

“I’d actually heard about the QuDoS recognition programme before I started at the MS Trust,” he says. “I was quite amazed by the quality of the pitches being made by teams up and down the country. So I was really keen for us to make sure that the awards continued the momentum, but also shone even more of a light on some of the great things happening right across the sector.”

Working smarter, not harder

It’s no secret that healthcare professionals are a largely modest bunch, focusing (quite rightly) on the task of providing patients with the best possible care. And faced with a significant waiting list of approximately 200,000 neurology patients in need of support, it’s easy to minimise the efforts and innovations of an individual or team.

“It’s quite a challenge to make sure that in this very busy sector where we’re supporting 130,000 people with multiple sclerosis, that we make sure some of the really good work is highlighted,” explains Martin. “Now, I think 364 days of the year, that doesn’t really happen. People have got their heads down; they’re trying to deal with the waiting list of 200,000 people at the moment.”

It is here, in the work being done day to day, where Martin believes MS healthcare professionals have much to gain from sharing knowledge, stories, and processes with teams across the nation.

“There have been some fantastic things that are happening in some of our big centres. But sometimes some of those really small changes in some of the smaller centres, which perhaps don’t always win the headlines – they make such a difference for the lives of those people living with multiple sclerosis,” he says.

But what makes an innovation worthy of sharing? For Martin, the key is replicability. Many teams are too overworked to even begin to contemplate restructuring services or introducing brand-new systems. Optimising the use of an existing system, however, can be highly advantageous, allowing professionals and teams to work smarter, not harder.

“One [QuDoS submission] that really sticks out for me was from University Hospital Southampton, called My MS Record, which was just quite simply stunning,” says Martin. “It was reusing some of the data that was already available, but bringing it together in one space. On the face of it, it was pretty straightforward, but it was a real step change.”

“One or two people scratched their chins a little bit, thinking, ‘It can’t really be innovation, can it? They’re really just using common sense’. But often innovation is using the things that are about and a little bit of common sense at the same time.”

The importance of sharing best practices

Of course, in order for teams across the country to learn from the array of innovative ways of working, both individuals and teams have to come together and share ideas. For Martin, this is one of the key benefits of the QuDoS recognition programme, particularly during this challenging time.

Existing imbalances in care have been well-documented in recent years, with the so-called ‘postcode lottery’ in MS care impacting the level of care and support that patients receive. Coming together – even just for one evening – opens the door for us to learn from our colleagues, including those talented individuals who would typically shy away from broadcasting their ideas and achievements.

“If we can encourage people to say, ‘Look, we know things are hard. We know things are difficult. We know that there’s burnout there. We know we’ve lost great people, those people who’ve decided to retire and to move on, but we can still make this better’. It’s not just a case of firefighting. There are some really good things going on in the MS sector.”

What are you looking forward to?

This year, QuDoS in MS is back for the first in-person event since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s no secret that the past few years have been incredibly challenging for those working across healthcare, but, as Martin highlights, even a global pandemic was not enough to stop innovation in MS care as professionals sought ways to navigate uncharted territory.

That is not to say that there will not be challenges ahead, Martin notes, but by working together and learning as a community, we can form a united front to improve services for people with all forms of MS, no matter where they live.

“I think now more than ever is the time for professionals across the MS sector to get involved with QuDoS. The pandemic is largely done, although the waiting lists are still there, and there’s a lot of firefighting going on. We’re seeing some of the key people, the most experienced people retiring, but the world of MS goes on. We’ve got 130,000 people living with MS.”

“The onus is on us more than ever to make sure this service is as good as it possibly can be, and the innovation that’s happening up and down the country is shared with everybody.”