Professor Kailash Bhatia is a Professor of Clinical Neurology at the Clinical and Movement Neuroscience Department at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London and an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the affiliated National Hospital for Neurology (NHNN), Queen Square, UK. Professor Bhatia's main research interest is in movement disorders, merging clinical, electrophysiological and genetic methods to study the pathophysiology of conditions like dystonia and Parkinson’s disease.
Professor Raymond Koopmans is a Professor of Nursing Home Medicine studies at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Radboud University, The Netherlands. Professor Koopmans studies the course of dementia in nursing home patients.
Professor Xavier Montalban is the Chair of the Department of Neurology and Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Catalonia (Cemcat) at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain, and Professor of Neurology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is a key opinion leader in the field of multiple sclerosis, and has been a PI in more than 150 clinical trials.
Neuro-SysMed's principal investigators for MS, PD and dementia met with their relevant SAB members to discuss their projects, planned activities, and how they work with the rest of the Centre. This led to fruitful discussions and insightful feedback into the individual projects. In general, the SAB members were very impressed with the high volume of investigator-initiated trials and their quality. All agreed that more focus was needed into radiology and imaging. Thinking of the future of the Centre beyond the funding period, it was also commented how a larger emphasis should be placed on visibility of our activities and potentially more collaborations with industry.
The SAB members also contributed with scientific talks at the Neuro-SysMed Annual Symposium.
Internal midway evaluation
It was initially planned that the Research Council of Norway (RCN) would carry out a midway evaluation of the centre in 2023. However, due to changes at the RCN, it was cancelled and Neuro-SysMed was confirmed to have funding for the entire 8-year period. As the central administration of the Centre was well on the way to prepare for such a process, we decided to carry out our own internal midway evaluation following the standard forms from the RCN and in addition carry out workshops with most of the Centre to get feedback on how the Centre is working at all levels. This feedback has been used to further make improvements and changes to how we work and we will continuously evaluate each year. Due to this process and the feedback from the SAB, efforts are being made to strengthen imaging at the Centre through new collaborations and positions, more meeting points for staff to have scientific discussions, and improved internal and external communications.