Objective:

NA

Background:

Multiple sclerosis is a neuroinflammatory process associated with long term disability. Early diagnosis and treatment initiation is crucial is maintaining a better quality of life. Studies have shown that barriers to timely care include lack of patient awareness of symptoms, misdiagnosis and delay in treatment initiation due to insurance authorization, availability of specialist neurologists, inadequate resources for diagnostic testing.

Design/Methods:

This is a retrospective study of 198 patients with diagnosis of  Multiple Sclerosis based on ICD code, between 1st May 2021 to 1st May 2023 in the Neurology Clinic. We Included patients that fit the McDonald Criteria 2017 for diagnosis. Variables measured included baseline demographic data including age, gender, ethnicity, education level, time of first symptoms onset, time of MS diagnosis, timing of treatment initiation, reason for delayed treatment initiation.

Results:

Our retrospective analysis shows that delay in treatment initiation in multiple sclerosis is due to delay in follow up clinic appointments due to unavailability, determination of drug approval by insurance authorization, peer to peer discussion to justify choice of treatment, lack of insurance due to poor socioeconomic background, preference for certain medications to be approved over another by insurance companies.

Conclusions:

Increasing knowledge amongst general population, health care providers, and increasing access to specialist clinic and ensuring smoother coordination for faster insurance authorization of disease modifying agents for the treatment of multiple sclerosis can reduce the burden of long-term disability amongst them.