Every big innovative change begins with the smallest of acts. A personal diary written in the early 19th century can provide insight into the experience of living with undiagnosed MS. Sharing information via digital communications channels can help professionals to keep up to date amid a surge of industry developments. Each contribution is valuable.

Celebrating the outstanding efforts of dedicated individuals and teams is at the heart of QuDoS in MS. But what exactly makes MS care outstanding?

For Dr Paul Tunnah, founder and CEO of pharmaphorum, even the most seemingly insignificant act is outstanding if it makes a difference for patients or caregivers. Having been involved with QuDoS for several years, he has seen first-hand how valuable sharing ideas between colleagues can benefit the wider MS community.

“When you look at innovation in MS care, I think the risk is to look at what they’re doing and leap to: ‘Well, it’s got to be something that looks really flashy’. But that’s not what it’s about,” he explains.

“For me, outstanding has consistently been something that makes more of a difference to patients and their families – even if that means a 1% difference,” he says.

“That is what outstanding is. It doesn’t matter what it is – it could be a process, it could be tech, it could be just how you interact with somebody,” he expands, “but it’s raising that bar across all the NHS around treatments and care of patients with MS.”

Celebrating and sharing good ideas

It’s no secret that healthcare professionals have faced myriad challenges over the past few years. Faced with a global pandemic, resource and financial limitations, as well as staffing shortages, MS health workers have gone above and beyond to deliver consistent and quality care for MS patients across the UK.

MS professionals, while highly capable and dedicated, are also a humble group. As Tunnah explains, this is an understandable quality. If your baseline for quality care is to work to the best of your ability every single day, then it is easy to minimise the impact of your efforts as not deserving of recognition.

Challenging this perception is important, says Tunnah, as recognising everyday achievements allows those working in the NHS to learn from their counterparts.

“The default is often to think: ‘Well, I’m not doing anything special’. But you are. It inspires other people to look at what they’re doing and think about that. The teams and individuals recognised by QuDoS are very often doing things that don’t require more money or investment. They’re just different ways of working,” he says.

“That’s really critical in the NHS. If there’s something that one team is doing for multiple sclerosis patients and their families that everybody across the UK could be doing, it doesn’t cost any more money, and it makes things better for the patient, why would other teams not do it too? The only barrier is not knowing about it,” he explains.

Championing hard work

While there are programmes that recognise high-profile efforts in healthcare, what sets QuDoS in MS apart is the focus on spotlighting and sharing innovative ideas that improve the everyday care for patients across the NHS, as identified by those who understand the needs and challenges of MS care.

“MS healthcare professionals are on the ground; they know what good looks like,” says Tunnah. They also learn from each other. Part of the QuDoS programme involves broader online dissemination and education, and our hope is that the entire MS community learns something from the efforts that are taking place that they can adopt in their workplace.

“It comes back to the thought that, if you can go to the NHS right now and say, ‘here’s a really good idea and it costs nothing, you just need to change the way you work,’ that’s what the NHS needs right now,” says Tunnah.

“Challenge this modesty of, well, ‘I don’t do it to get recognised, so I shouldn’t submit what I’m doing or what my team is doing probably isn’t good enough’,” he says. “Submit it. That’s why we have a judging panel. They will look at it and assess how good it is and what the best stuff is, but if you don’t submit it, we can’t even see it.”

“By celebrating the daily efforts, the dedication of individuals and teams, and the ongoing pursuit of excellence in the MS space, we can reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that patients receive quality care across the NHS,” he says.

“QuDoS is about saying that even if there were no new treatments or any interventions coming along, there are things we can do, working with what we’ve got that very efficiently can make a big difference to patients in the immediate future,” Tunnah concludes.