How Versus Arthritis Is championing team science to tackle the toughest challenges in arthritis

The Versus Arthritis Research Consortium: Musculoskeletal Epidemiology - Better Lives, Safer Journey

We are pleased to announce the Versus Arthritis Research Consortium: Musculoskeletal Epidemiology - Better Lives, Safer Journey bringing world-leading experts from five UK universities together to help answer pressing questions from those living with arthritis.

This £3 million investment will accelerate clinical epidemiology research in the UK by uniting researchers, clinicians, decision makers, and people with lived experience.

Versus Arthritis Research Consortia will harness ‘team science’ to better understand the causes and risk factors for arthritis and improve treatment options.

The consortium, made up of experts from the Universities of Manchester, Keele, Oxford, Nottingham and Aberdeen, aims to close five gaps in our understanding of the debilitating disease and related conditions. By answering these questions, the researchers hope to arm healthcare professionals with the information they need to provide the best care they can.

• How do we reduce inequalities in musculoskeletal health?
  The consortium will explore how people of different ages, from different backgrounds and living in different parts of the UK have very different healthcare experiences and outcomes. They will then identify opportunities to improve how doctors and other health professionals deliver care.
• How can we reduce the population impact of chronic pain?
  The consortium aims to identify those at higher risk of chronic pain sooner, given painful musculoskeletal conditions often begin in childhood. This holds the potential to explore ways to prevent or reduce persistent pain.
• What is the impact of the menopause on people with musculoskeletal conditions?
  The consortium aims to understand the impact of the menopause on those living with arthritis and use it to develop guidance for management of menopause-related pain, and the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy (used to treat the menopause) in those with arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions.
• How do we make pharmacological management of chronic musculoskeletal pain safer?
  The consortium will identify risks of taking common pain-relievers to inform shared decision making about when to take these drugs.
• How can we improve the safe, acceptable prescribing and monitoring of common immune drugs?
  The consortia will determine how often regular monitoring such as blood tests are needed for drugs like methotrexate, whilst maintaining safety, so we can reduce the burden on patients and clinicians.

Lucy Donaldson, Director of Research at Versus Arthritis said...

There are many remaining unmet needs around arthritis, compounded by significant gaps in understanding:

How will they do this?

The consortium will employ cutting edge analysis techniques on existing datasets to fill the identified gaps in our knowledge of arthritis and MSK conditions. Its findings will help to arm those living with arthritis to have informed conversations with clinicians about their care. It will also seek to improve clinical practice and policy around diagnosis, prevention and treatment.

Professor Kimme Hyrich, Director of the University of Manchester Centre for Musculoskeletal Research will co-lead the consortium with Professor Christian Mallen, Executive Dean and Professor of General Practice and Public Health at Keele University.

Professor Hyrich, a leading clinical epidemiologist and consultant rheumatologist, highlights the advantages of team science in epidemiological research:

“It is a real privilege to be able to lead this multidisciplinary team. Placing people with lived experience at the core of our consortium and working closely with implementation scientists from the outset will ensure that our outputs are robust and meaningful and delivered to the right audience in the most appropriate way.”

Professor Mallen, a leading researcher who trained as a GP, said the inclusion of primary care spoke volumes of the role GPs play in achieving better outcomes for those living with musculoskeletal conditions:

Improving the lives of 20 million people

The results will be shared through a broad range of partners including government, the NHS, clinicians and patient networks.

More than 20 million people, of all ages, in the UK have problems with their joints, bones and muscles, which cause pain and impact all aspects of life including work and school.

The Versus Arthritis Research Consortium: Musculoskeletal Epidemiology - Better lives, Safer journey is the first of six consortia to be announced by Versus Arthritis which is awarding £18 million of funding to this initiative over the next three years.

Your support helps us to fund life-changing research like our Research Consortia. Together we are moving closer to making arthritis preventable, manageable and treatable.