Multiple Sclerosis

Learning from our expert neurologists and pediatric specialists, you will develop your ability to:

• recognize symptoms and localize neurologic lesions
• use and interpret common diagnostic tests: blood tests, lumbar puncture results, evoked potentials, MRIs and neuropsychologic evaluations
• apply MRI-based McDonald criteria to an MS diagnosis to demonstrate the dissemination of central nervous system lesions in space and time
• formulate differential diagnoses incorporating patients’ medical history and neurological exam abnormalities
• understand systemic approaches to managing MS
• develop care plans, including follow-up diagnostic tests and treatment, according to evidence-based medical knowledge in MS
  
• make use of MS-specific disease-modifying therapies and symptomatic drugs

You will be exposed to MS patients during your long-term outpatient continuity clinic and as a consulting physician at our specialized Jacobs Multiple Sclerosis Center for Treatment and Research.

You also will have the opportunity to train in our Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Center of Excellence, part of a national network designated by and funded through the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

This multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art center, located in Oishei Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, serves mainly adolescents with demyelinating conditions.

You will be part of a team of dedicated specialists providing comprehensive care ranging from initial consultation and diagnosis to treatment and rehabilitation. 

In addition, you will have opportunities to participate in the center’s highly successful research program.

The entire nine-center national network collaborates on clinical and basic science research to gain a better understanding of pediatric MS, develop efficacious therapies and provide the highest standards of treatment.

Our cutting-edge collaborative studies involve researchers from the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC) and specialists in neuropsychology, pediatric infectious diseases and pharmaceutical sciences.

UB is involved in studying numerous aspects of MS in children, including:

• genetic and environmental risk factors for MS gut microbiome
• the cognitive status of children who have MS or have had an acute disseminated encephalomyelitis event (ADEM)
• volume changes in the brain’s thalamus region

Our researchers also are taking the lead in conducting a network-wide prospective MRI analysis.

Children and adolescents from throughout Western New York with demyelinating conditions, including:

• MS
• acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM)
• optic neuritis
• transverse myelitis
• neuromyelitis optica (Devic’s disease)

• pediatric and adult neurologists with expertise in demyelinating conditions
• pediatric multiple sclerosis specialists
• pediatric neuroradiologist
• pediatric neuropsychologist
• multiple sclerosis nurse
• pediatric physical, occupational and speech therapists
• social worker
• case manager
• consulting physicians in pediatric urology, otolaryngology, psychiatry and neuro-ophthalmology

6 clinics per year throughout residency