At the annual meetings of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Socie ties (IFMSS) the representatives of the national MS societies of numerous countries assemble for discussions and reports on work accomplished, under way, and to be undertaken in the future. In addition to publicity work, education, and patient ser vices, there has been an increasing interest in obtaining first hand, reliable, and re alistic information not only on the medical problems relevant to diagnosis, treat ment, and the management of MS, but also on progress in the difficult field of MS research. For this purpose the International Medical Advisory Board (IMAB) was founded. In the past years its members have organized a number of symposia in conjunc tion with the IFMSS meetings in New York, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Toronto, Am sterdam. The program of the G6ttingen symposium, relevant in its focus to the 1978 meeting of the IFMSS in Hannover, had the double purpose of bringing together scientists from many countries with active MS societies, and to inform the organi zers and members of these societies, and thereby also the MS patients, of problems and progress in a number of areas of MS research. The program was conceived as a survey of newer work undertaken in basic and experimental MS research and, on the clinical side, as a reassessment of the prerequisites in the diagnosis of MS, the value of laboratory tests, some therapeutic approaches, and organizational princi ples in the management of MS.