International recognition for our rheumatology research team

Chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases are painful, disabling and costly, both for individuals and for society. For example, rheumatoid arthritis, the most common of these conditions, affects one in every hundred people and costs the UK £9 billion per year.

Our rheumatology team focuses on these conditions with an extensive and expanding portfolio of clinical and translational research, recognised for its excellence at both national and international levels. The overarching objective of our research is to improve clinical outcomes for those with, and at risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and axial spondyloarthropathy, systemic lupus erythematosus, Behcet’s disease and myositis. We are doing this by developing diagnostic tests, drugs and lifestyle assessments to predict, prevent and reverse disease.

SWB hosts the University of Birmingham’s academic department of rheumatology with three Professors (Profs Karim Raza, Adam Croft and Caroline Gordon) and two Senior Lecturers (Dr John Reynolds and Dr Paola de Pablo) based at the Trust. In addition, NHS consultants lead their own research programmes developing new treatments for psoriatic arthritis (Dr Rao Elamanchi), myositis (Dr A Prabu), systemic lupus erythematosus (Dr Sofia Tosounidou) and Bechet’s disease (Drs Situnayake, Chandratre, Tosounidou and Baskar). Our research is highly collaborative, and we have developed strong research links with other clinical specialities including ophthalmology, gastroenterology and renal medicine.

Much of our research is underpinned by internationally recognised clinical cohorts, such as the Birmingham early arthritis cohort and the Birmingham lupus cohort. Our work has:

• Identified the role of autoantibody testing and ultrasound scanning in predicting the development of rheumatoid arthritis and has shed new light on the mechanism which drives inflammation in the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis

• Helped identify the risks of malignancy, cardiovascular disease, and neurological and psychiatric disease in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

• Confirmed equivalence of efficacy of anti TNF and interferon alpha therapy for Bechet’s disease in a world first head-to-head trial (the BioBehcets trial).

PRIMARY CARE, COMMUNITY AND THERAPIES

SWB Rheumatology forms part of the Versus Arthritis centre of excellence in inflammatory arthritis (2019-24), is a Lupus UK centre of excellence (renewed in 2019), a national centre of excellence in Bechet’s disease and is a key clinical partner in the Arthritis Therapy Acceleration Programme with Oxford University. We are a regional specialist centre for connective tissue diseases, a European EULAR centre of excellence (2021-26) and a member of national and international collaborative research groups in SLE.

Patient and public involvement is a key element of our research and is supported by the Birmingham rheumatology research patient partnership; funding for that group is provided by the University of Birmingham.

Our research has led to major patient benefit and has informed national and international clinical guidelines for rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Bechet’s disease, myositis and pregnancy in patients with rheumatic disease.

This month, we say hello to Demetri Wade, who recently started in his new role as Deputy Chief Operating Officer.

Demetri began his career in the NHS as a diagnostic radiographer, moving into operational leadership roles to support the delivery of high-quality patient care and experience more broadly. For the past few years, he had been the group director of operations for medicine and emergency care and has now taken on an operational leadership role across the organisation as deputy COO.

Demetri said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at SWB and my role overseeing successful improvements for the services within medicine and emergency care. This new role as deputy COO is wide ranging but will mainly focus on supporting our clinical services to provide high quality care by working with colleagues to ensure we have appropriate numbers of clinical staff, equipment, and resources to support them, and clear plans to support the delivery of our organisation’s strategic objectives.

“As an operational leader with a clinical background I put patients at the centre of my decision making and focus on providing the best care possible. I have a passion for leadership development and consider supporting the wellbeing, job satisfaction, and contribution of all staff to be a primary focus of my role.”

A key focus of Demetri’s new role is ensuring operational readiness for MMUH, supporting clinical services as we prepare for next year’s move.

“MMUH presents the opportunity not only to improve the environment for our patients, but also optimise the way in which care is delivered. There are also exciting improvements for staff with a learning campus to provide training and development and the ability to work in a building designed for best practice care delivery.”

“I am most looking forward to helping our services develop through our fundamentals of care framework and continuous quality improvement journey and continuing to work with SWB colleagues who are passionate about what they do and providing the very best for our patients.”