Predicting Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity - PRADA Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Predicting Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity (PRADA) Study
IRAS ID
358551
Contact name
Philip Hamann
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research and Innovation, North Bristol NHS Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
318655, Original Ethical Approval
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 26 days
Research summary
This project aims to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that uses these ePROM data to predict when patients with arthritis need to see their rheumatology doctor for follow-up appointments.
Rheumatic and musculoskeletal disorders (RMDs), affect 1-2% of people and cause joint pain and stiffness. These conditions can get better or worse over time. Currently, patients have regular hospital check-ups, but scheduling is often at the wrong time. Some patients are seen when their condition is stable, while others might wait too long when their condition worsens, due to busy clinics. This means patients are not receiving the best care.
Since 2018, North Bristol NHS Trust has used an app to track patient reported disease activity in RMDs using electronic patient reported outcome measures (ePROMs). These ePROMs give a reliable indicator about how active a patient’s arthritis is at that time and has enabled healthcare professionals at NBT to offer more remote appointments to patients and avoiding unnecessary trips to hospital. Over the past six years, over 1500 patients have downloaded the app and >60,000 ePROMs have been collected.
This project will use these existing anonymised ePROM data, collected as part of routine clinical care, to develop an AI tool that will predict likely future outcome scores. This prediction tool will enable health professionals to accurately triage a patient’s individual need for, and timing of, future appointments and make sure scarce clinical time is allocated to those patients most in need.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
25/WS/0179
Date of REC Opinion
13 Nov 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion