We released the first of these video chats — about MS and sex — last month. Due to the need to fit into the organization’s annual meeting, this first episode was a prerecorded video and only 30 minutes in length. The hope and plan are for hourlong video webcasts with interactive capabilities, so that those attending live will be able to submit questions to our panel of experts.
A Urologist and Psychologist Help Sort Out Sex Issues
For this episode, I was able to reach back into my patient history and twist the arms of two of my former healthcare providers. Claire Yang, MD, a board-certified urologist at the Urology Clinic at University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, as well as a UW professor of urology and adjunct professor of neurology, and Michelle Toshima, PhD, a clinical psychologist specializing in rehabilitation at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. Both are top-class professionals in their field as well as super guests! We talked about some of the more difficult aspects of MS when it comes to sex, and we all know there can be some difficulties. We didn’t get to all of the questions I wanted to ask (as I said, it was only a 30-minute program this time), so I suspect that we’ll have the two doctors, and perhaps another professional, with us again in the future to expand on the topic of MS and sex. The questions we did get to, however, were culled from those we received via calls for ideas via social media channels. We’ll probably do the same in the future.
Not My First Time as Webcast Host
If I seemed comfortable in my hosting role in this first video chat, it may be because it’s not my first time hosting such a series. Many years ago, I did a bit of hosting work for an internet health startup that through growth and acquisitions eventually became Everyday Health. The series started as a test of me, a patient, taking the compere — or master of ceremonies — role, which is usually filled by a media professional. There was a prewritten script, medical professionals, and an MS patient advocate on our calls. (These were “webcasts,” but more people dialed in on their phones than accessed us via the internet back then.) After a few programs, I was asked to write the scripts (which became more free-flowing and patient-driven) and, as I was asking follow-ups and expressing concerns as a person living with the disease, we dropped the pharma-paid patient advocates as well. It was after a few of these programs that one of the editors at the company asked me if I’d like to write a blog about living with MS. To which I, now rather infamously, replied, “Sure … what’s a blog?” And that’s how this longest-running MS patient column on the web got started. But I never forgot the importance of those webcasts, even though they were eventually discontinued.
Stay Tuned for More Chats From MS Ireland
For this new series, we hope to webcast them at a late enough time in Ireland that some of our American and Canadian readers can join us live. That being said, the webcasts will be recorded so they can be rewatched at more convenient times (and rewatched with family, if you find something you think they should hear) after the fact. It was great good fun to be back behind the microphone, as it were, and even better to chat with former providers who have become friends and colleagues in our drive to end MS. I hope you find this and future videos helpful. Wishing you and your family the best of health. Cheers, Trevis
