The health-related quality of life in people with MS is substantially lower than the general Australian population. The vision of Professor Ingrid van der Mei’s research is to harness digital health technologies with the aim of improving both clinical care and self-care for people with MS.  
Professor van der Mei and her team are developing a digital patient-centred health care system (called InforMS), an online intervention (called MS WorkSmart), and a symptom tracker app (called My SymptoMS). In addition, four short new specialist Massive Open Online Courses (called MOOCs), will be developed and delivered, including content on mental health, social isolation, healthy ageing, choosing disease modifying therapies and supporting and caring for someone living with MS. The project will also assess the impacts of these systems and courses on behaviour change, health outcomes and clinical care for people with MS. 
Professor van der Mei and her team have made substantial progress on their projects this past year.
InforMS, the digital platform that people with MS can manage as an electronic health record, is ready for Australian MS Longitudinal Study (AMSLS) participants to test. Professor van der Mei will then assess uptake of InforMS to make improvements. The tracking app called My SymptoMS was tested and is now ready for a wider roll-out. The web-app will be freely available.
The research team demonstrated that MS WorkSmart, a digital program for people who are employed, could be successfully delivered and was perceived as being very useful in reducing the risk of job loss.
Lastly, two specialised Massive Open Online Courses – Mental health and MS and Deciding about DMTs for MS – were launched in December 2024. More than 3000 people have already enrolled, with the course having a 4.9 out 5 star rating so far. The third specialised MOOC (Ageing well with MS) will be launched in April, with the last one (Caring and supporting people with MS) later this year.
Over the next 12 months, Professor van der Mei and her team will introduce InforMS to participants in the AMSLS and see how well it works in practice. They will also examine how many people use the My SymptoMS app within InforMS. MS WorkSmart will be made available to all Australians with MS, and the research team will explore how helpful it is. Finally, they will assess how useful all the MS-related online MOOCs have been.
van der Mei I, Thomas S, Shapland S, Laslett LL, Taylor B, Huglo A, Honan C. Protocol for a pragmatic randomised controlled feasibility study of MS WorkSmart: an online intervention for Australians with MS who are employed. BMJ Open 2024;14(5):e079644.
Updated 31 March 2025
$650,000
2022
5 years
Current project
