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The Centre for Adolescent Rheumatology Versus Arthritis at UCL UCLH and GOSH is the world’s first centre dedicated to understanding arthritis and related conditions in adolescents.
The Centre is a unique, multidisciplinary research Centre of excellence, hosted jointly by the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, and the Division of Medicine at UCL. It was established in 2012 and is now in its second phase of strategic funding from Versus Arthritis and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSHCC).
With our strategic partners, University College London Hospital (UCLH), Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), and two NIHR funded Biomedical Research Centres (at UCLH and GOSH) we have created a critical mass of inter-disciplinary scientists, researchers and clinicians in this emerging field.
- About Us
- The Centre aims to help to deliver translation of basic scientific research developments into clinical benefit for patients aged between 10 and 25 years with rheumatologically disease.
- This Centre focuses on basic and translational scientific research to addressing the broad needs of adolescents with arthritis and related conditions, is the first of its kind in the world.
- The Centre also provides education, training and a national network to increase the number of experts in the area.
- The Centre serves as a platform to deliver seamless top quality research, which is integrated into clinical care, across the adolescent /young adult age range, as patients transition to adult services, and provides leadership, training and community/professional engagement at National and International levels in this novel area.
- Missions and Objectives
The Centre’s mission is to improve the health and well-being of adolescents with arthritis, lupus, myositis and related conditions by undertaking cutting edge research and ensuring that patients have the opportunity to be part of research and clinical trials.
The Centre addresses a number of key research questions, including:- What are the best treatments for adolescents with arthritis or other rheumatic diseases such as lupus?
- Why do many of these conditions develop during adolescents?
- What are the effects of having long-standing arthritis?
- What happens to children and teenagers who develop arthritis and rheumatic diseases when they grow up?
- Public Engagement and Involvement
The Centre runs a ‘Young Person’s Focus Group’ involving young people aged between 11-24 years and older who are diagnosed with a rheumatic condition. Patient involvement and engagement is integral to the work undertaken at the Centre (see figure below), and we collaborate with Young People shape the research carried out across all our Centre Research Themes.
The Centre also works closely with BANNAR and YourRheum (see theme 5), and undertakes engagement activities with the wider public to improve the understanding and awareness of rheumatic conditions.
Figure 1: Young People are involved in all aspects of public involvement and engagement as illustrated below