Laura Kolaczkowski is active in the MS community on several levels, including writing for her personal blog InsideMyStory and other online distribution outlets. She is a newly named District Activist Leader with the National MS Society and was the recent recipient of an NMSS Lifetime Achievement award from the Ohio Valley Chapter. Laura serves as the Lead Patient representative for iConquerMS™, a patient powered research network funded through PCORI. In this role she functions as a bridge between researchers and the almost 3,000 people with MS who have enrolled and shared their own personal MS history. Her approach to research is patient centric, and strongly rooted in her Liberal Arts background with a focus on understanding the shift in patient – physician relationships thanks to the use of digital media and online MS sites.
Laura has her B.A. in Communication Management from the University of Dayton, where she also worked for over 25 years, until leaving full-time work due to her MS. She resides in Beavercreek, Ohio, and appreciates Midwest living but loves the fast pace of visits to Boston, Washington, DC and the Pacific Northwest. She and her husband, John, enjoy traveling and she has visited 49 of the states in the US; she is open to suggestions on what to do when she makes it to Idaho, which will be her 50th state. This mother of two adult children and three grandchildren, has a love for cookie baking during the holidays.
Laura’s focus here at Multiple Sclerosis News Today will be on better understanding the many complex dimensions and layers of research and how people living with a chronic disease like multiple sclerosis can be engaged in the research process. She believes advances in MS treatment and daily life will only come about when more people understand the aims of research and become active participants. She is open to topics about research to cover here and would love to hear from scientists and clinicians who are working in laboratories and on clinical trials, so she might have a more personal look at the process.
Would you open your bank account and write a blank check to just anyone requesting something of value from you? Of course not. So, why would ... Read more
Long-awaited approval of the multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) has been delayed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. What had been publicized widely as a ... Read more
We all know the credit card commercial with actor Samuel L. Jackson talking about the buying power and the return on a certain credit card. He ... Read more
I make no secret that I believe MS nurse practitioners (NP) are the people who make the difference in an MS clinic. They are as knowledgeable ... Read more
Family Caregiver Month is observed each November, and it is estimated there are more than 90 million family members in the U.S. giving full-time care to ... Read more
I recently had the opportunity to serve as a consumer reviewer of research applications submitted to the Multiple Sclerosis Research Program (MSRP) sponsored by the Department ... Read more
Should those of us with multiple sclerosis get vaccinated for influenza or not? It’s a debate that takes place in many MS communities each fall. The argument ... Read more
ECTRIMS 2016 (European Committee for Treatment and Research in MS) produced lots of stories with exciting headlines about advances in MS research — and hopefully you ... Read more
If only we were cherub faced children, then perhaps someone would have listened to us in the past few years as we voiced concern and then ... Read more
The importance of getting a representative group of people, also known as subjects, engaged in clinical trials cannot be understated. There is so much that we ... Read more
There was an almost audible gasp in the room as I was making a presentation recently at a multiple sclerosis talk. What did I say that was ... Read more
Karen Staman and I met a while back through a National Institute of Health and Duke University research collaborative effort. She is a scientific writer by ... Read more
You want to help find answers about multiple sclerosis but don’t know how, and I hear your frustration about being unable to contribute in meaningful ... Read more
This idea is so simple. But it has been overlooked for years until the partners of Gray Consulting, a Philadelphia firm, connected the dots and developed ... Read more
Can we all agree that research studies are important and they are necessary to prove whether a concept works or it doesn’t? Even from the biggest ... Read more
We wait in anticipation for multiple sclerosis (MS) drugs to clear Phase 3 clinical trials and get to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval, ... Read more
This chewing gum handout in the exhibit area of the recent Drug Information Association (DIA) 2016 meeting says it all from the pharmaceutical company perspective – ... Read more
Editor’s Note: Multiple Sclerosis News Today welcomes Laura Kolaczkowski to our team of Patient Specialists and MS bloggers. As you will read in her introductory post below, ... Read more
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Laura has her B.A. in Communication Management from the University of Dayton, where she also worked for over 25 years, until leaving full-time work due to her MS. She resides in Beavercreek, Ohio, and appreciates Midwest living but loves the fast pace of visits to Boston, Washington, DC and the Pacific Northwest. She and her husband, John, enjoy traveling and she has visited 49 of the states in the US; she is open to suggestions on what to do when she makes it to Idaho, which will be her 50th state. This mother of two adult children and three grandchildren, has a love for cookie baking during the holidays.