Integrating Clinical Research Insights Into Multiple Sclerosis Practice: Mark Freedman, MD, MSc

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"If you're a clinician and you're serious about multiple sclerosis (MS), you want to be on the forefront and the edge of the research. You want to be doing things that may be the future for patients [with MS]."

Multiple sclerosis (MS) management continues to evolve as clinical research refines the understanding of disease activity, treatment response, and long-term outcomes. Translating investigational findings into practical therapeutic strategies remains central to improving patient care, particularly as clinicians seek to balance efficacy, safety, and individualized treatment goals. Clinical trials not only test new agents but also generate data that can inform real-world decision-making, from choice of therapy to monitoring approaches and risk–benefit assessment over time.

At the recently concluded 2026 Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) Annual Meeting, held May 27-29, Charlotte, North Carolina, Mark Freedman, MD, MSc, HBSc, CSPQ, FANA, FAAN, FRCPC, director of the multiple sclerosis research unit at Ottawa Hospital, presented a session titled “From Bench to Bedside: How Clinical Research Shapes the Future of MS Treatment.” The session was developed in response to a call for more focused discussion on how to meaningfully integrate clinical research into everyday MS practice, with an emphasis on how participation in trials positions clinicians at the forefront of emerging therapeutic advances.

In an interview at CMSC 2026 with NeurologyLive^®, Freedman, who also serves as a professor of neurology at the University of Ottawa, discussed the rationale for embedding clinical research in MS clinics and highlighted several implications for patient care. He outlined how clinician involvement in studies offers patients access to therapies that may not yet be commercially available, while simultaneously allowing investigators to gain early, practical experience with new agents. He also addressed the limitations of current outcome measures and described how clinical trials serve as a testing ground for more sensitive metrics.

Click here for more coverage of CMSC 2026.

REFERENCES
1. Freedman M. From Bench to Bedside: How Clinical Research Shapes the Future of MS Treatment. Presented at: 2026 CMSC Annual Meeting; May 27-29; Charlotte, North Carolina.