Peter Mellor and Jillian McCarthy
The Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) Greater Manchester is a partnership between the NHS and the University of Manchester. We are currently working with Arthritis Research UK and the Health eResearch Centre (HeRC) on the REmote MOnitoring of Rheumatoid Arthritis (REMORA) study. The goal of this study is to work with patients, the public, clinicians, managers, IT staff and researchers to develop a smartphone app which allows patients to log rheumatoid arthritis (RA) symptoms and severity regularly between appointments.
The information is sent directly to the patient’s electronic hospital record and will allow patients to be more involved in viewing and discussing information with their clinician.
The final outcome will be a fully developed smartphone app and a toolkit that will support the implementation of similar remote monitoring projects across the NHS. The data from the app will also support novel research into RA (for example, understanding the frequency and causes of disease flares).