Let’s hear from Joachim Burman, Uppsala University Hospital, about this 2020 article published in Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry “ My research is particularly aimed at professionals working in low-income healthcare systems, so it is a necessity for it to be open access in order to reach them.”
Joachim Burman is a consultant neurologist at Uppsala University Hospital and an associate professor of neurology at the Department of Medical Sciences of Uppsala University. What inspired you to pursue research in this particular area? As a clinical neurologist with more than 20 years of experience, I have met many people with multiple sclerosis and disease onset in the pre- treatment era. Many of them are now severely disabled or have died from multiple sclerosis. They are a constant reminder that we must do better by offering healthcare and advanced treatments to more people. Over the years I came to realise that autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation could reverse disability in multiple sclerosis and induce prolonged remission in selected patients and that provided comfort to me as well as to my patients. How do you envision your research contributing to the broader field or addressing real-world issues? I have specialised in off-label treatments for MS, such as rituximab and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. These are cost- effective options that could be adopted in low-income countries as well. Since off-label treatment rarely gets support from pharmaceutical companies, it is nearly impossible to conduct randomised controlled trials, but with the right set-up, real-world studies can provide high-quality evidence as well.
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