Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre of Excellence

Our mission is to conduct high quality research designed to improve the content and delivery of primary care and reduce the impact of chronic musculoskeletal pain and arthritis in individuals and populations. Our 5-year strategy is to produce research which will underpin a shift in the primary care management of musculoskeletal disorders, away from a narrow focus on disease and reactive treatments (dealing with today's problems as presented by patients), and to an increasing emphasis onpro-active, positive approaches to self-management and clinical management, which aim to maintain health and wellbeing within a bio-psychosocial framework.models of stratified primary care, in which patients are sub-grouped according to key characteristics or to their risk of future long term disability, and then matched with appropriate treatments, thus ensuring that the right patients get the right treatment in a timely manner.Three research programmes, will address the two most common musculoskeletal problems, namely osteoarthritis, and regional and widespread musculoskeletal pain, and the most common inflammatory diseases, namely gout and polymyalgia rheumatica, presenting to primary care. Each programme brings together our clinical expertise in primary care with our methodological strengths in prognosis research, clinical trials and qualitative research.