Arden & GEM’s business intelligence team has co-authored an article for the Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders Journal following analysis of the risk of COVID-19 infections among MS patients and the impact of vaccination on cohorts taking different treatments.
As the national data processors for directly commissioned services within England, Arden & GEM’s business intelligence service produces a range of analytical reports to support specialised commissioning policy and clinical decision-making for patients with rare and complex conditions.
When the neurology team at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) wanted to understand the risk of COVID-19 infection on MS patients taking different immunomodulatory disease-modifying therapies, one of Arden & GEM’s expert analysts was able to help.
By linking national NHS data with the UK Health Security Agency testing data, analytical lead, Sameer Patel, was able to determine if patients on a particular treatment of disease modifying therapy were more likely to be infected based on humoral and cellular immune responses.
Analytical assumptions were reviewed by a panel of clinicians, including a neurologist and pharmacist, with the group publishing their findings and conclusions in an article titled ‘Impact of mass vaccination on SARS-CoV-2 infections among multiple sclerosis patients taking immunomodulatory disease-modifying therapies in England’ in Volume 57 of Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders.
Through accessing and analysing national pseudonymised data, rather than smaller acute cohorts, the researchers found that certain medicines were associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 infections following vaccination which has led to changes in prescribing practice both locally and nationally.
The method is now being used as a template for other conditions such as severe asthma and cystic fibrosis, with plans to also replicate the approach with different viruses.
A copy of the published article can be found here.