Remote monitoring in rheumatoid arthritis for early detection of flare
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Remote Early Flare Detection for Rheumatoid Arthritis – REFDRA: \nRemote monitoring in rheumatoid arthritis for early detection of flare - Does remote patient-reported flare assessment agree with clinician flare assessment?\n
IRAS ID
260182
Contact name
Bashaar Boyce
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS FT
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 31 days
Research summary
Rheumatoid arthritis (where joints become swollen because the body’s defence systems attack them) affects 1% of the UK population. There are 690,000 patients with rheumatoid arthritis in the UK, and the impact of the disease is estimated to cost the UK £8 billion per year. Rheumatoid arthritis is a life-long incurable disease and symptoms change over time.\n\nCurrent medical treatment of rheumatoid arthritis is based on pre-arranged hospital appointments, sometimes many months apart. Currently, the only way for patients to tell their rheumatology doctor how good or bad their arthritis is, is at routine hospital appointments or by requesting an additional emergency appointment.\n\nFlare-ups occur in many patients with rheumatoid arthritis and are unpredictable. Flares can last for days or weeks and cause significant disability and impact on activities of daily living. Identifying flares quickly and starting appropriate treatment are recommended as part of standard care, and can improve symptoms and reduce the length of time of a flare. However, it is often difficult for patients to be reviewed by a rheumatology specialist doctor quickly because rheumatology clinics are often fully booked. This means that the rheumatoid arthritis disease activity may worsen further before the patient can be seen by a rheumatology specialist.\n\nThis research project will use patient reported symptom severity scores, grip strength and image-recognition data (gathered from thermal photos of hands taken by patients on their smartphones), collected through a smartphone app, to see if patient reported flares relate to clinician assessed flares in clinic. By understanding if it is possible to identify flares of RA early and remotely (e.g. at home), it will be possible for doctors to give advice and recommend treatments to patients more quickly over the phone or via email and reduce the length of time that they experience a flare of their disease.
REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/SW/0092
Date of REC Opinion
3 Jul 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion