Community Day 2025
Patient Community Day (PCD) is a global meeting point for people living with MS, NMOSD, and MOGAD, their families, and healthcare professionals. The event celebrates collaboration, amplifies patient voices, and turns research insights into everyday understanding — building stronger connections across the MS community.
3500+
registered
participants
89
countries
represented
500+
online questions
& comments
SPEAKERS
Experts, researchers, and people with lived experience came
together to share insights that bridge science and real-world impact.
SESSIONS
Each session explored a key part of the MS, NMOSD and MOGAD
journey – from new scientific insights to lived experience and patient care.
This session explored the latest developments across the patient journey – from diagnosis and emerging therapies to rehabilitation and the role of specialist nurse support.
Panelists:
- Alvaro Cobo Calvo, Neurologist, Vall Hebron Institut de Recerca, Spain
- Amy Perrin Ross, MS Nurse, Loyola University Medical Center, USA
- Bruno Stankoff, Neurologist, ECTRIMS President, France
- Gabriel Bsteh, Neurologist, ECTRIMS Committee Member, Austria
- Joelle Massouh, MS Nurse, Harley Street Medical Center, United Arab Emirates
- Roshan Das Nair, Researcher, University of Nottingham, UK
- Sudarshini Ramanathan, Neurologist, Concord Hospital, Australia
Key Highlights
- Early diagnosis and monitoring remain critical to improving outcomes.
- Advances in therapies are improving quality of life and care delivery.
- Specialist nurse support was recognised as central to patient wellbeing.
- Rehabilitation continues to be a vital part of ongoing management.
Session Overview
- Diagnosis
- Emerging Therapies
- Specialist Nurse Support
- Rehabilitation
The Lived Experience Panel invited people from around the globe to share their personal stories and highlight the ways in which they are actively shaping research.
PCD moderator Brett Drummond said: “Our mission goes beyond communicating information. It is about facilitating a two-way dialogue between researchers and patients, and putting the people who live with these conditions at the very centre of that conversation.
“Because when we all work together, we progress faster to better outcomes.”
Whether through patient advocacy, working with national and international organisations, taking part in registries and clinical studies, or amplifying underrepresented voices, each speaker demonstrated the crucial role of patients in the research process.
More than personal stories, these were powerful calls for partnership, inclusion, and equity in research and care.
Here’s what they had to say.
PCD 2025 “hot topics” are defined as the topics that matter most to people living with MS and related conditions – from everyday challenges such as cognition, to breakthroughs in biomarkers, genetics, and artificial intelligence.
Panellists:
- Ali Manouchehrinia, Researcher, University of Manitoba, Canada
- Daniel Ontaneda, Neurologist, Cleveland Clinic, USA
- Jeannette Lechner-Scott, Researcher, University of Newcastle, Australia
- Liliana Patrucco, Neurologist, Centro de Esclerosis Múltiple de Buenos Aires (CEMBA), Argentina
- Mitzi Joi Williams, Neurologist, Joi Life Wellness Group, USA
- Olga Ciccarelli, Researcher, ECTRIMS Vice-President, UK
- Xavier Montalban, Neurologist, Multiple Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia (Cemcat), Spain
Cognition
The majority of people living with MS and related conditions will experience cognitive issues at some point in their patient journey. Cognitive problems include difficulty paying attention, planning, switching between tasks, finding the right word when speaking and memory problems. This can have a huge impact on a person’s employment, social life, and everyday activities.
At this year’s ECTRIMS congress, cognition was the focus of the keynote lecture.
Ask the Expert online session offers global connectivity
PCD 2025 included an Ask the Expert segment to give remote participants around the world more time to pose questions directly to experts neurologists Alan Thompson, Mar Tintoré and Romain Marignier.
It was an open exchange of ideas that captured the heart of PCD: connection, learning, and hope. Topics covered included diet and the microbiome in MS, the impact of perimenopause on MS. ageing and MS, and the impact of co-morbidities.
Find out what our panel had to say.
Alan Thompson
Ali Manouchehrinia
Alvaro Cobo Calvo
Amy Perrin Ross
Brett Drummond
Bruno Stankoff
Daniel Ontaneda
Gabriel Bsteh
Jeannette Lechner-Scott
Joelle Massouh
Liliana Patrucco
Mar Tintore
Mitzi Joi Williams
Olga Ciccarelli
Romain Marignier
Roshan das Nair
Sudarshini Ramanathan
Xavier Montalban
PCD is about making research inclusive. We want to see the real face of MS, NMOSD, and MOGAD. By doing the research, making it equitable and inclusive, we create a better idea of what they actually look like. Not only does this help the patients, but it also helps the researchers and the clinicians – to be able to do the work that matters, with the insights that we need.
Roxy Murray,
Person living with MS; Multiple Sclerosis Fashionista
PARTNERS
More than 40 Supporting Partners from 17 countries
helped amplify the global reach and impact of PCD 2025
ECTRIMS is the world’s largest professional organisation dedicated to the understanding and treatment of MS and related neurological conditions. Each year, thousands of researchers and healthcare professionals from around the world attend the ECTRIMS Annual Congress to share and discuss the latest science and advances.
ECTRIMS 2025 was held in Barcelona, Spain.