Thanks for saying all that so clearly. I think it's important to understand the landscape of MS. I don't say this to demonize any part of the landscape, but I think everyone ought to know the interrelationships between all the parts, especially when meeting with the doctor.

You'd have a plan to learn about whether the price of the car you want to buy is a good one. You'd have a plan to find a trustworthy plumber, right? You'd think about the schools, taxes, past values and job security if you were buying a house. So, thinking about pharma, the FDA, the doctors, journals, medical schools, etc. makes sense in thinking about medications.

Doctors have judgement and those judgements wouldn't always be your own if you were fully informed about them. Sometimes they would be. But, many of us like our doctor because...... well, we LIKE our doctor. He/she is nice, professional and has a clean well managed office and they spend time with me - none of which really equates to expertise in my medical issue. You'd research and learn about flat screen tv's so you could ask the salesperson a lot of good questions when you went in to shop. We should do the same with the doctor. Ken