Completed Bones, Joints & Muscles Public Health & Healthcare

Arthritis Research UK Centre of Excellence in Epidemiology

Funder VsArthritis Charity-funded
Recipient organisation University of Manchester
Funding £2.4M
Period Aug 2013 — Jul 2018

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A national network of researchers is mining millions of electronic health records to pinpoint why some people with arthritis get worse while others improve, and to build computer tools that help doctors choose the right treatment from the start. This matters because rheumatic and musculoskeletal disorders—conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, and back pain—affect a large portion of the population, yet treatment is often a trial-and-error process. Doctors lack precise, evidence-based ways to predict which patient will respond to which drug, or who is at highest risk of rapid joint damage. The centre aims to close that gap by linking existing long-term studies with national health databases, then applying advanced statistical methods to identify the factors—genetic, lifestyle, environmental—that truly drive disease progression and treatment success. If the research succeeds, the immediate impact will be in clinics: computerised decision-support tools that give rheumatologists a personalised risk profile for each patient, guiding them toward the therapy most likely to work. Beyond individual care, the UK-RiME partnership will train the next generation of musculoskeletal epidemiologists, building a workforce capable of tackling these questions for decades. The work is applied epidemiology, not fundamental science, but its findings will quietly reshape how the NHS allocates expensive biologic drugs and how patients experience their disease.

View original technical description
The proposed Arthritis Research UK Centre of Excellence in Epidemiology (CoEE), based at the Universities of Manchester and East Anglia, aims to Be the national and international leader in epidemiological research directed at identifying and quantifying risk factors for the aetiology, prognosis and treatment response of rheumatic and musculoskeletal disorders (RMDs). This research will use existing cohorts and national electronic health record databases and, where possible, will link between them. Use and develop state-of-the-art and innovative epidemiological and analytical methods to address the challenges of musculoskeletal (MSK) epidemiology in the 21st century Use the knowledge gained from these studies to optimise stratified therapeutic strategies and translate them into clinically useful computerised tools to guide treatment decisions and thus improve outcomes for patients with RMDs Establish the UK Research in Musculoskeletal Epidemiology (UK-RiME) partnership of academic departments at the Universities of Aberdeen, Bristol, Oxford, Keele and Southampton with expertise in MSK epidemiology. The UK-RiME partnership will work together to build research capacity in MSK epidemiology through a national multidisciplinary training and mentorship pathway. This programme will then be extended nationally and internationally. Disseminate knowledge concerning the aetiology, prognosis and treatment of RMDs through scientific, educational and public engagement initiatives

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Deborah Symmons (EPMC Awardee)

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

Centre for Epidemiology Versus Arthritis
UK Research in Musculoskeletal Epidemiology - UK-RIME
Arthritis Research UK Centre of Excellence in the Genetics of the Rheumatic Diseases
Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre of Excellence
RACE - Research into Inflammatory Arthritis Centre Versus Arthritis

Original classification

Centre of Excellence Full

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.