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This is what worries me ......

National Public Radio Story (July 21, 2009): 'Comparative Effectiveness' In Health Care Debated

The story mentions the NICE in the UK. I don't know how accurate the story is, but it concerns me that someone could one day decide that ABX, Stents or any other "off-label" therapy is not sufficiently effective in MS. It seems to me that it puts enormous value on the past and enormous hurdles on potential. Ken

NICE is not the way to go, though I'm not sure about Gregg's costings! Some people get far more than £40,000 spent on them each year.

There is nobody in charge here who thinks that abx are useful for MS and as for stents, they are useful for arterial blockage, but that's it. Things change, though, and if both were shown positively to be useful, with tons of double blind trial and so forth, they would get the OK.

Having said that, there is nothing to stop a GP prescribing abx for MS, if they so wish and theoretically they could send a patient for testing for CCSVI. The trouble is, too many believe that what NICE says goes, which is untrue.

Also, if someone has private insurance in addition the National Insurance, NICE rulings don't apply.

Sarah