December 2009 - The British Society for Rheumatology

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Other|News New Chief Executive for the Arthritis Research Campaign Funding opportunities for musculoskeletal research In 2008 UK research funding was reorganised to ensure opportunities for all researchers in basic science, translational medicine, and clinical trials. A coordinated strategy for funding clinical studies was developed by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council (MRC). The MRC Experimental Medicine and the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) programmes were set up to secure the progress of new technologies and interventions through their early clinical trials and on to larger, later clinical trials. Dr Liam O’Toole has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Arthritis Research Campaign (arc). Dr O’Toole replaces Fergus Logan, who left the charity after 11 years as chief executive in May. Dr O’Toole has a background of working in the UK’s health and medical sectors. From January 2007 he was Head of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research (OSCHR), and until the end of 2008 was chief executive of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration. Graham Bull Prize in Clinical Science The Royal College of Physicians is pleased to announce that the Graham Bull Prize in Clinical Science 2010 is now open for applications. This award was established in 1988 in honour of the late Sir Graham Bull who was the first Director of the Clinical Research Centre at Northwick Park. A Trust for the Graham Bull Prize was set up to provide money for young research workers under the age of 45 who feel that they have made a major contribution to clinical science. The work can cover a wide range of expertise, such as molecular and cellular biology, imaging technology, psychiatry, or health sciences. The award is open to both clinical and basic scientists who must apply for their own work to be considered. The sum of £1,000 will be awarded to the prize winner. The closing date for applications is 31 March 2010. Further information is available, along with an application form, on our website: www.rcplondon.ac.uk/trustfunds The EME programme was launched in 2008 and is funded by the MRC and managed by the NIHR as the lead organisation for clinical trials and evaluation. The remit of the EME programme includes clinical trials and evaluative studies, in patients, which evaluate the clinical efficacy of interventions (where proof of concept in humans has already been achieved). Studies may also add significantly to our understanding of biological or behavioural mechanisms and processes by taking advantage of opportunities provided by the main trial to undertake mechanistic evaluation. The EME Board is multidisciplinary and meets three times per year and the programme has a nominal budget of approximately £15 million per annum in steady state. The EME programme provides an ongoing research opportunity with cut off dates for submission of applications prior to each Board meeting. The programme has received applications from a broad range of disciplines and the first EME funded studies have now started. The partnership between the NIHR and the MRC has resulted in a managed translational pathway where: • MRC programmes consider whether an intervention can work; • the EME programme considers whether an intervention does work; • the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme considers whether it is worth doing (i.e. it is both clinically and cost effective). There is a certain degree of planned overlap between the different funding programmes to ensure that there are no gaps. In addition, there is opportunity for pull through of promising interventions from one programme to another along the pathway, but also for push back when necessary. There is close working between the programmes to ensure applications are considered by the most appropriate one. Find out more or apply for funding through the websites • MRC Experimental Medicine – www.mrc.ac.uk • EME programme – www.eme.ac.uk • HTA programme – www.hta.ac.uk Dr Danielle Preedy, Professor Ian Cree and Professor Rajesh Thakker ➜ Clinical study group for adult inflammatory arthritis Our next deadline for Expressions of Interest is 17 January 2010 Please see our strategy document for priority areas: www.arc-research.org.uk/med_director/documents/IACSGStrategy.pdf For further details contact sandra.wilkinson@newcastle.ac.uk 6
Other|News www.rheumatology.org.uk TRACE RA update The TRACE RA trial (TRial of Atorvastatin for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Events in Rheumatoid Arthritis) has recruited its 1,300 th patient. This is a great achievement for the largest network of rheumatology research collaborators ever put together in the UK, to whom the TRACE RA team owe great thanks. However, the challenge remains very high and this achievement needs to be built upon over the coming months in order to achieve the target of 3,800 patients by the end of 2010. This will only be possible with the continuing commitment of patients and colleagues within the 100 participating centres. There are long proven benefits of statins to reduce cardiac events in at-risk populations due to their cholesterol-lowering properties or possibly through an anti-inflammatory effect. Due to RA patients being previously mostly excluded from statin trials it is unclear whether this benefit occurs in this patient group. This five year trial, jointly funded by arc and the British Heart Foundation, is led by Professors George Kitas, Jill Belch and Deborah Symmons. It investigates whether atorvastatin is more effective than placebo in the prevention of cardiovascular events in RA patients. The trial also incorporates two sub-studies, all on the UKCRN portfolio. TRACE RA-DAS investigates the hypothesis that atorvastatin is more effective than placebo as adjunctive therapy in reducing RA disease activity. TRACE RA-Biobank will provide a rich resource for future mechanistic studies. For further information, please go to www.dgoh.nhs.uk/tracera or contact the Trial Manager, Hawys Williams, on 0161 2755639 or hawys.williams@manchester.ac.uk BSPAR Update The British Society of Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology (BSPAR) Autumn meeting in Liverpool brought together many members of the paediatric rheumatology community for a successful meeting. An away day for the Clinical Affairs Committee set priorities for the group; this was open to all BSPAR membership and is to become an annual event. Priorities set include: development of standards of care and their assessment to support service development; clinical support with guidelines and patient information leaflets; peer review and support for effective clinical networks. The BSPAR Standards of Care for Juvenile Arthritis are now available on the BSPAR website and an audit tool is being developed, these will be linked to new ARMA standards of care. The nursing group is growing and has an annual meeting to support their development. The BSPAR Etanercept Biologics Registry continues to recruit patients and collect data during a period of transition and an anticipated move to Manchester. A further study is looking at the use of other biologics in paediatric rheumatology. A list of BSPAR research projects is available on the website. Research is strongly encouraged for junior trainees in paediatric rheumatology, the ARC/Barbara Ansell fellowship offers funding for one year for trainees wishing to experience research in the field. It is advisable for trainees to consider this even prior to clinical experience in the specialty. The BSPAR website is anticipating a face lift, improving sharing of information among professionals, to support the busy sub-committees, encourage membership involvement and disseminate publications and useful pieces of work. An area for public access and patient information is also proposed. Please visit www.bspar.org.uk for more information. NRAS World Arthritis Day parliamentary events This year, World Arthritis Day focused on the theme of the challenges of work. Over the last few years NRAS has been engaging with policymakers to ensure that patients with RA are supported in staying in or getting back to work. The aim of our parliamentary events this year was to raise MPs’ awareness of the developments that have been taking place in this area and the challenges that remain for people with RA of working age. implementing the Government’s Work, Health and Wellbeing strategy. Steve Bevan, MD of the Work Foundation also presented a summary of the pan-European study he has been leading on the impact of musculoskeletal disorders on the workplace. The session was chaired by Jenny Snell, Government Affairs Manager, NRAS and also included NRAS volunteer Jean Burke’s account of being diagnosed at age 39 when she was at the peak of her career. We held a ‘drop in’ event during the afternoon of 13 October in Portcullis House to enable MPs to call in and meet with both representatives of NRAS and some of their members. Over 50 MPs attended during the afternoon and were keen to hear our members’ personal stories about coping with RA in the workplace and what impact it had on their ability to remain working. A photo opportunity enabled the MPs to raise awareness in their local constituency and highlight their support for WAD in the local media. Following the drop in event key parliamentarians joined representatives form the Department of Health, National Audit Office and eminent clinicians and allied health professionals to hear an update from Professor Dame Carol Black, National Director for Health and Work on the progress that has been made in Professor David G I Scott, Dr Deborah Bax and Professor David Isenberg at the NRAS World Arthritis Day 7
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December 2009 - The British Society for Rheumatology

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