iAIMS, the international community for AI in multiple sclerosis, has become a formally constituted community with an elected board. Members approved the board unanimously and the result was announced on 18 September 2026. Dr Stijn Denissen, co-founder and researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, is Chair.
AI research in MS is growing quickly, but little of it has reached clinical practice so far. The founders believe the main obstacle is a lack of shared understanding between people who know MS and people who know AI, rather than a lack of talent or ideas. iAIMS brings both groups together across disciplines and country borders.
The community was started by Dr Denissen and Dr Ceren Tozlu at a brainstorm in Barcelona on the evening before ECTRIMS 2025. In its first year it has run online journal clubs and started working towards a peer review tool that uses generative AI responsibly (https://iaims.org/platypeer/). Its content is openly licensed. iAIMS has three aims: to unite people working on AI in MS, to inform through teaching that runs in both directions, and to co-create open code, data and guidance.
iAIMS works closely with ECTRIMS, an existing partner of the EAN. Dr Denissen co-chairs the ECTRIMS AI and Digital Innovation Committee, which guides the responsible, evidence-based use of AI across the MS field.
iAIMS at MSToronto 2026, the 10th Joint ACTRIMS-ECTRIMS Meeting
- Educational session: Understanding AI in MS: Practical Tools for Clinicians and Researchers Wednesday 21 October, 08:30 EDT, Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Educational sessions need separate registration.
Meet the board. Wednesday 21 October, 10:45 EDT, during the coffee break, at the NeuroNetwork area. Look for our logo.
“In AI, a loss function measures the gap between what a model predicts and the ground truth. Our work is to make that gap as small as possible. By reducing the loss function, we’re trying to reduce loss of function in MS. iAIMS exists so that people working on the first can do more about the second,” said Dr Stijn Denissen, Chair of iAIMS.
“People with MS can be members of iAIMS, not spectators. AI research in MS should be understandable, properly scrutinised and aimed at what matters to the people who live with the condition,” said Dominic Shadbolt, Communications Officer of iAIMS, who has lived with MS for 35 years.
The EAN will also be present at the ECTRIMS meeting in Toronto, holding a joint ECTRIMS/EAN session on Optimizing brain health in MS environmental and lifestyle interventions, motor fitness, and cognitive resilience
