PREFER: Rheumatoid Arthritis Case Study

2018-11-26

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that causes painful joint inflammation. If it is not controlled, the inflammation can lead to deformity and loss of function. RA often runs in families. One of PREFER’s clinical patient preference case studies will focus on people at risk of developing RA in the future.

There is currently no cure for RA, and most patients need long-term treatment with expensive drugs that can have serious side-effects. There is currently a lot of research interest in the idea of short-term treatment of people who are at risk of developing RA in the future, to try and prevent disease development.

The PREFER RA case study will assess the preferences of people at risk of developing RA for risk reducing treatments.  Knowledge about their preferences will inform decision-making about new drugs - Not only for the companies that develop drugs, but also for the authorities that approve them, and decide if they should become available to people who are at risk of developing RA in the future.

The PREFER preference study will involve relatives of RA patients and members of the public, in Germany and the United Kingdom. The clinical work is led by researchers at the universities of Erlangen and Birmingham. This study will also address a number of methodological research questions identified in the first part of the PREFER project. It will contribute valuable knowledge about why, how and when patient preferences should inform decision-making about medical products.

By Marie Falahee

Clinical research team:

  • Dr Marie Falahee is a Lecturer in Behavioural Rheumatology at the University of Birmingham
  • Prof Karim Raza is Versus Arthritis Professor of Clinical Rheumatology at the University of Birmingham
  • Dr Gwenda Simons is a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham
  • Dr Larissa Valor Méndez works at the Rheumatology and Immunology Department at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg

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Last modified: 2021-11-10