Hi all. Saturday 17th October was a very special day in the advancement of research into Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM). Last year several members of the Myelopathy Support group on Facebook & many others travelled to New York, USA to undertake a consensus meeting involving people with DCM, Neurosurgeons & Allied Health Professionals in order to determine the Top 10 research priorities for Degenerative Myelopathy Research.
Originally, we were due to reconvene in San Diego, California, USA in order to decide by consensus the Core Outcomes that need to be measured in people with DCM in order to assess them correctly & thus prescribe the right treatment. Details to follow as there is a lot of data crunching that needs to be done before the results are released in due course.
Obviously due to the COVID 19 pandemic, this wasn't a possibility this year, so the consensus group undertook a marathon 6 hour Zoom meeting in order determine those outcomes moving forward.
So today, I wanted to take this opportunity of thanking the team at AOSpine & the team from the James Lind Alliance for all there help & organisation behind the scenes to make the Zoom meet a huge success. For me personally I had a lot of fun as it was great reconnecting with old friends & helping to make a difference to folk's lives was heart warming.
So to everyone on here who feel despair that DCM isn't well known enough or taken seriously enough, or by the lack of knowledge & apparent progress on DCM research, do not fear. Although it doesn't seem it, progress is being made. I & the other members of the Consensus group have been working behind the scenes on this now for over 2 years, so never lose hope. We can & will make a difference - of that I'm sure. 😊
PS. And we got to wear theses great T shirt as designed by the founder of our Support Group & Admin on this page, Iwan Sadler - so thank you for your creativity.
Shirley (mod)
