20 October 2022
Each year our research funding call is an opportunity for new or aspiring researchers who are looking to take their first steps toward a research career. It is open to BSR members who hold any role within the rheumatology MDT.
Earlier this year, we announced the winners of the 2022 funding call. This year, the BSR is investing more than ever in supporting the research aspirations of members who have little or no prior research experience, with over £90k in funding awarded.
Here the winners tell us more about their winning applications and the important research work they have planned.
Dr. Patricia Harkins, St James Hospital, Dublin
The prevalence of frailty and its association with clinical outcomes in Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA). The FIT (Frailty in GIant Cell ArteriTis)
We will be carrying out a multicentre prospective study analysing the prevalence and impact of frailty in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and giant cell arteritis (GCA).
In recent years, frailty has been established as a predictor of less favourable disease outcomes in multiple conditions, including musculoskeletal and rheumatic diseases, however to date, its prevalence and indeed impact among individuals with both PMR and GCA is relatively unknown.
One of the major limitations of achieving optimal disease outcomes in both PMR and GCA is the absence of an accurate measure of patient disease stratification.
We aim to assess the association between frailty status and longitudinal disease outcomes -potentially identifying frailty as a novel predictor of worse disease outcomes, and thus allowing for a more tailored and personalised approach to therapy according to the frailty state.
Dr. Roanna Burgess, School of Medicine, Keele University
Developing and testing a musculoskeletal national audit in community/primary care
Our project aims to develop and setup a future musculoskeletal (MSK) national audit which will use patient
and clinician inputted data to measure the quality and effectiveness of care for patients presenting in community and primary care MSK services with common MSK conditions, including joint, muscle, or back pain/symptoms.
Secondly this project aims to improve the quality and equity of care provision for patients presenting with MSK conditions through enhanced reporting and evaluation of quality data for participating services, promoting quality improvement, and sharing of best practice. This project is focused on big data collection looking to emulate successful methods/digital infrastructure used as part of the NEIAA national evaluation.
Digital/E-PROM systems will be used to collect standardised quality data from patients across 20 participating services (MSK community services and MSK First Contact Practitioner (FCP) primary care services). This data will be collected alongside organisational data to allow for enhanced analysis, benchmarking, and reporting, supporting services to evaluate quality.
For more information and to express interest in taking part see our study webpage: Keele’s National MSK Audit - Keele University
Dr Ryan Hum, Centre for Musculoskeletal Research, The University of Manchester & The Kellgren Centre for Rheumatology, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
Identification of Serum Proteomic Biomarker Signatures Correlated with Ultrasound Assessed Joint Inflammation in Psoriatic Arthritis
People with psoriatic arthritis often suffer from pain and fatigue; this affects their quality of life and life expectancy. Psoriatic arthritis is a long-term condition caused by inflammation. It often causes painful or “hot” joints, and itchy, scaly skin rashes all around the body. A good way of measuring how “hot” a joint is, is by using a jelly-scan called ultrasound. If joints are “hot” then we say that the disease is “active” and needs treatment with medications. With intensive treatment using medications via injection or tablets which alter the immune system, we can control the disease. We say a controlled disease is “in remission”.
However, we need better tools to monitor disease activity. Tools such as ultrasound are good, but time-consuming, and need special training. A blood test that could measure the same thing as an ultrasound would be ideal.
In this project, we are going to study a group of patients with psoriatic arthritis. For all the patients in the study, we will do an ultrasound of the joints and take blood samples. We will then analyse the different amounts of proteins in the blood using a technique called “SWATH MS”. Then we will use statistical methods to see if we can discover proteins that are biomarkers for disease activity. In the future, these biomarkers could be used in a clinic to better monitor disease for patients with psoriatic arthritis. We also hope that these biomarkers could be used to help improve treatments and find new treatments for patients with psoriatic arthritis.