Swansea University

Professor Sinead Brophy
Professor Ernest Choy

Arthritis

NCPHWR, Pfizer, Novartis, Biogen, UCB, ARUK & Sanofi.

4 years

Assessment of the true impact of arthritic conditions on health and society. To improve diagnosis by identifying early symptoms, promoting health and the control of arthritic conditions and to identify high-risk patients early on.

Prevent disease by identifying the impact of environmental, genetic and psychosocial risk factors. Assessment of clinical effectiveness and health economic impact of treatments and therapeutic strategies in a real-life setting. Improve drug safety by detecting side effects and complications in large real-life populations and follow patient pathways through the healthcare system. Finally, improve health by identifying suitable interventions and help inform health policies and services to improve patient health.

The WHEAR project uses routinely collected health data held in SAIL to examine the epidemiology of arthritis and musculoskeletal disease.
Presenting features of arthritic conditions prior to an arthritis diagnosis will be investigated to help improve early disease detection using and machine learning techniques. Identification of environmental, psychosocial, dietary and hereditary risk factors that predispose individuals to disease development so that individuals at high risk of developing conditions can be identified. The investigation of co-morbidities that may exist with arthritis, such as cardiovascular diseases and dermatological diseases.

Assess the short-, medium- and long-term impact of arthritis on mortality, morbidity, physical function, quality of life and health economic impact. Examine the impact of musculoskeletal and arthritic conditions on healthcare providers (admission to hospital and cost of treatment) and society. Assess the efficacy and adverse effects of arthritis treatments as well as the effectiveness of current musculoskeletal condition management strategies.

Links to WHEAR publications:

https://ijpds.org/article/view/86

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673616322735?via%3Dihub

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7380164/?reload=true

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0126105

https://academic.oup.com/rheumatology/article/54/9/1563/1826984

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049017212002326?via%3Dihub

https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2474-14-163

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049017212001667?via%3Dihub

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049017217306212?via%3Dihub

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0154515