The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry

Abstract Objectives The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry is the oldest operative and nationwide MS registry. We present The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry with its history, data collection, scientific contribution, and national and international research collaboration. Materials and Methods Detailed description of data collection, completeness, quality optimizing procedures, funding, and legal, ethical and data protection issues are provided. Results The total number of registered cases with clinical isolated syndrome and multiple sclerosis since 1956 was by start of May 2020 30,023 of whom 16,515 cases were alive and residing in Denmark, giving a prevalence rate of about 284 per 100,000 population. The mean annual number of new cases receiving an MS diagnosis was 649 per year in the period 2010 to 2019. In total, 7,945 patients (48.1%) are receiving disease modifying therapy at the start of May 2020. Conclusions Multiple Sclerosis registers are becoming increasingly important, not only for epidemiological research but also by quantifying the burden of the disease for the patients and society and helping health care providers and regulators in their decisions. The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry has served as data source for a number of scientific publications including epidemiological studies on changes in incidence and mortality, cohort studies investigating risk factors for developing MS, comorbidities and socioeconomic outcomes in the MS population, and observational studies on effectiveness of disease modifying treatments outside the narrow realms of randomized clinical trials

Treatment Escalation vs Immediate Initiation of Highly Effective Treatment for Patients with Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis:Data from 2 Different National Strategies

IMPORTANCE: Treatment strategies for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) vary markedly between Denmark and Sweden. The difference in the association of these national strategies with clinical outcomes is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of national differences in disease-modifying treatment (DMT) strategies for RRMS with disability outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cohort study used data on 4861 patients from the Danish and Swedish national multiple sclerosis (MS) registries from the date of index DMT initiation (between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2016) until the last recorded visit at time of data extraction (October 2, 2019). EXPOSURES: All MS-specific DMTs initiated during the observation period were included in the analysis. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary study outcome was time to 24-week confirmed disability worsening. Secondary outcomes were 24-week confirmed disability improvement, milestone Expanded Disability Status Scale scores of 3 and 4, annualized relapse rate, time to first relapse, and treatment switching. Data were analyzed using inverse probability of treatment weighting–based models using a propensity score to weight and correct the comparison for the imbalance of confounders observed at baseline between the 2 countries. RESULTS: A total of 2700 patients from the Swedish MS registry (1867 women [69.2%]; mean [SD] age, 36.1 [9.5] years) and 2161 patients from the Danish MS registry (1472 women [68.1%]; mean [SD] age, 37.3 [9.4 years]) started a first DMT between 2013 and 2016, were included in the analysis, and were observed for a mean (SD) of 4.1 (1.5) years. A total of 1994 Danish patients (92.3%) initiated a low to moderately effective DMT (teriflunomide, 907 [42.0%]) and 165 (7.6%) initiated a highly effective DMT, whereas a total of 1769 Swedish patients (65.5%) initiated a low to moderately effective DMT (teriflunomide, 64 [2.4%]) and 931 (34.5%) initiated a highly effective DMT. The Swedish treatment strategy was associated with a 29% reduction in the rate of postbaseline 24-week confirmed disability worsening relative to the Danish treatment strategy (hazard ratio, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.57-0.90; P = .004). The Swedish treatment strategy was also associated with a 24% reduction in the rate of reaching an expanded disability status scale score of 3 (hazard ratio, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.60-0.97; P = .03) and a 25% reduction in the rate of reaching an expanded disability status scale score of 4 (hazard ratio, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.61-0.96; P = .01) relative to Danish patients. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The findings of this study suggest that there is an association between differences in treatment strategies for RRMS and disability outcomes at a national level. Escalation of treatment efficacy was inferior to using more efficacious DMT as initial treatment

Big Multiple Sclerosis Data network: an international registry research network

Background The Big Multiple Sclerosis Data (BMSD) network (https://bigmsdata.org) was initiated in 2014 and includes the national multiple sclerosis (MS) registries of the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, and Sweden as well as the international MSBase registry. BMSD has addressed the ethical, legal, technical, and governance-related challenges for data sharing and so far, published three scientific papers on pooled datasets as proof of concept for its collaborative design.Data collection Although BMSD registries operate independently on different platforms, similarities in variables, definitions and data structure allow joint analysis of data. Certain coordinated modifications in how the registries collect adverse event data have been implemented after BMSD consensus decisions, showing the ability to develop together.Data management Scientific projects can be proposed by external sponsors via the coordinating centre and each registry decides independently on participation, respecting its governance structure. Research datasets are established in a project-to-project fashion and a project-specific data model is developed, based on a unifying core data model. To overcome challenges in data sharing, BMSD has developed procedures for federated data analysis.Future perspectives Presently, BMSD is seeking a qualification opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to conduct post-authorization safety studies (PASS) and aims to pursue a qualification opinion also for post-authorization effectiveness studies (PAES). BMSD aspires to promote the advancement of real-world evidence research in the MS field

The impact of healthcare systems on the clinical diagnosis and disease-modifying treatment usage in relapse-onset multiple sclerosis: a real-world perspective in five registries across Europe

Introduction: Prescribing guidance for disease-modifying treatment (DMT) in multiple sclerosis (MS) is centred on a clinical diagnosis of relapsing–remitting MS (RRMS). DMT prescription guidelines and monitoring vary across countries. Standardising the approach to diagnosis of disease course, for example, assigning RRMS or secondary progressive MS (SPMS) diagnoses, allows examination of the impact of health system characteristics on the stated clinical diagnosis and treatment access. Methods: We analysed registry data from six cohorts in five countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and United Kingdom) on patients with an initial diagnosis of RRMS. We standardised our approach utilising a pre-existing algorithm (DecisionTree, DT) to determine patient diagnoses of RRMS or secondary progressive MS (SPMS). We identified five global drivers of DMT prescribing: Provision, Availability, Funding, Monitoring and Audit, data were analysed against these concepts using meta-analysis and univariate meta-regression. Results: In 64,235 patients, we found variations in DMT use between countries, with higher usage in RRMS and lower usage in SPMS, with correspondingly lower usage in the UK compared to other registers. Factors such as female gender ( p  = 0.041), increasing disability via Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score ( p  = 0.004), and the presence of monitoring ( p  = 0.029) in SPMS influenced the likelihood of receiving DMTs. Standardising the diagnosis revealed differences in reclassification rates from clinical RRMS to DT-SPMS, with Sweden having the lowest rate Sweden (Sweden 0.009, range: Denmark 0.103 – UK portal 0.311). Those with higher EDSS at index ( p  < 0.03) and female gender ( p  < 0.049) were more likely to be reclassified from RRMS to DT-SPMS. The study also explored the impact of diagnosis on DMT usage in clinical SPMS, finding that the prescribing environment and auditing practices affected access to treatment. Discussion: This highlights the importance of a healthcare system’s approach to verifying the clinical label of MS course in facilitating appropriate prescribing, with some flexibility allowed in uncertain cases to ensure continued access to treatment

Proportion and characteristics of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis in five European registries using objective classifiers

BackgroundTo assign a course of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) (SPMS) may be difficult and the proportion of persons with SPMS varies between reports. An objective method for disease course classification may give a better estimation of the relative proportions of relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and SPMS and may identify situations where SPMS is under reported. Materials and methodsData were obtained for 61,900 MS patients from MS registries in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (UK), including date of birth, sex, SP conversion year, visits with an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score, MS onset and diagnosis date, relapses, and disease-modifying treatment (DMT) use. We included RRMS or SPMS patients with at least one visit between January 2017 and December 2019 if &gt;= 18 years of age. We applied three objective methods: A set of SPMS clinical trial inclusion criteria ("EXPAND criteria") modified for a real-world evidence setting, a modified version of the MSBase algorithm, and a decision tree-based algorithm recently published. ResultsThe clinically assigned proportion of SPMS varied from 8.7% (Czechia) to 34.3% (UK). Objective classifiers estimated the proportion of SPMS from 15.1% (Germany by the EXPAND criteria) to 58.0% (UK by the decision tree method). Due to different requirements of number of EDSS scores, classifiers varied in the proportion they were able to classify; from 18% (UK by the MSBase algorithm) to 100% (the decision tree algorithm for all registries). Objectively classified SPMS patients were older, converted to SPMS later, had higher EDSS at index date and higher EDSS at conversion. More objectively classified SPMS were on DMTs compared to the clinically assigned. ConclusionSPMS appears to be systematically underdiagnosed in MS registries. Reclassified patients were more commonly on DMTs

sj-docx-1-tan-10.1177_17562864231198963 – Supplemental material for The impact of healthcare systems on the clinical diagnosis and disease-modifying treatment usage in relapse-onset multiple sclerosis: a real-world perspective in five registries across Europe

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-tan-10.1177_17562864231198963 for The impact of healthcare systems on the clinical diagnosis and disease-modifying treatment usage in relapse-onset multiple sclerosis: a real-world perspective in five registries across Europe by Richard Nicholas, Jeff Rodgers, James Witts, Annalaura Lerede, Tim Friede, Jan Hillert, Lars Forsberg, Anna Glaser, Ali Manouchehrinia, Ryan Ramanujam, Tim Spelman, Pernilla Klyve, Jiri Drahota, Dana Horakova, Hanna Joensen, Luigi Pontieri, Melinda Magyari, David Ellenberger, Alexander Stahmann, Helmut Butzkueven, Anneke Van Der Walt, Vladimir Bezlyak, Carol Lines and Rod Middleton in Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders</p