Gilles Bisson, MPP for Timmins-James Bay met with local multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferers last week to discuss ways to accelerate a recently proposed government study.

Since 2009, people with and families of people with MS have been hopeful that a surgical technique developed by an Italian physician could minimize or completely reverse the symptoms of the disease. Neither Dr. Paolo Zamboni's technique, nor the hypothetical condition he believes causes the disease, has been the subject of any large-scale, well-designed, peer-reviewed studies.

"I was contacted by the local group in Kapuskasing who wanted to discuss ways to accelerate the process of finding ways for the government to accept the surgery in Ontario and list it under Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP)," explained MPP Bisson. "And it was also an opportunity for them to bring forth their stories to the provincial government."

So far, the federal government has refused to fund clinical trials following the recommendation of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. In August, the feds convened a panel of the nation's top MS specialists, the MS Society and a person with MS to discuss that very issue.

The panel's recommendation was that it is too soon to try out the procedure, which has come to be called "the Liberation" treatment, on willing test subjects because: 1.) the condition Dr. Zamboni hypothesizes causes MS (something he calls chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI)) has not been conclusively determined to exist; 2.) if the condition does exist, there is no reliable test yet to identify it; and 3.) no large-scale, well-designed, peer-reviewed study has shown the surgery actually works, or why it might do so, despite anecdotal evidence and testimonials from MS patients.

There was, the panel wrote in its report, "unanimous agreement from the experts that it was premature to support pan-Canadian clinical trials as there is an overwhelming lack of scientific evidence on the safety and efficacy of the procedure."

A study in Ontario that is to wrap up in 2011 is looking at using ultrasound and MRI to identify CCSVI, but it is not looking into the existence of the condition itself. MPP Bisson said the MS Society and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will embark on a study in 2011 that could take up to one year to complete. Information from the ministry as to what that study is testing was not available by press time, but Mr. Bisson seemed to think that it would look at the Liberation technique itself. Afterwards, it would take another year or two, if the recommendation is yes to accept it, to get the money together.