Are you interested in representing the patient voice for those with Psoriatic Arthritis? Join Brit-PACT as a Patient Representative
The British Psoriatic Arthritis Consortium (BritPACT) is a UK collaboration established in 2014 aiming to bring together individuals in the UK with an interest in psoriatic arthritis. Our membership includes a variety of health care professionals such as rheumatologists, dermatologists, AHPs, and nurses with a clinical and/or research interest in psoriatic arthritis, alongside patients with the condition who engage with policy, research, and educational initiatives. Since its inception, BritPACT has contributed to several national research studies and policy initiatives aimed at improving outcomes for people living with psoriatic arthritis. BritPACT is committed to putting patients at the heart of everything we do.
We are seeking new patient members to join the committee and broader community to advocate for patient needs and interests.
Who Can Join?
- People living with Psoriatic Disease
- Those passionate about sharing their experiences and developing research collaboration/ supporting researchers
- Anyone interested in contributing to future developments in PSA research and management
What You’ll Do
- Help shape topics and presentations for future BritPACT Annual Meetings and activities by sharing your experiences and views
- Be a Patient Expert Partner and help amplify the patient voice from your lived experiences
- Help guide future research and researchers in the treatment of PsA
How to Get Involved
For informal discussion or to show your interest, please contact Andy Kelly (current commitee patient partner) for more information. Akelly.physio@gmail.com
About Psoriasis and PsA
Psoriatic arthritis is a type of inflammatory arthritis that occurs in some people who have the skin condition psoriasis. Around one in every five people with psoriasis will develop psoriatic arthritis but it's not clear why some people with psoriasis develop psoriatic arthritis and others don't. In most people, the arthritis starts after the skin psoriasis but they can start at the same time. Occasionally some people have arthritis first and develop psoriasis later.
It typically causes inflammation in joints making them swollen, painful and stiff and can also affect tendons and the spine causing pain and stiffness. You can find a whole library of FAQs about psoriatic arthritis at Healthpad.
Further information on the condition and support for people diagnosed with PsA can be found at these links:
Links to patient support organisations
- Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Alliance (PAPAA)
- Psoriasis Association
- NHS Choices
- Arthritis Research UK
Looking for information about patients involved in BritPACT?
Patient involvement at BritPACT is key to our mission. We have two patient representatives who sit on the steering committee helping to shape our educational and research aims. Information on our steering committee patient representatives can be found here.
BritPACT recognises the needs of people with Psoriatic Disease and highly values it’s engagement with patients – two of whom have been part of the BritPACT Steering Committee since our launch in 2016. The patient partners take an active role in all our discussions and plans and have presented patient focussed topics at our annual meeting.
In 2018 we will be setting up a sub-group called ‘The BritPACT Patient Communications Group’ (BPPCG). This sub-group will be open to patients interested in helping to share patient experience through BritPACT as ‘Patient Expert Partners’ and those who are unable to commit to be any more active than participating in a quarterly teleconference. To begin with a quarterly BPPCG teleconference would be set up using a doodle poll to establish best choice of dates/times (we propose evenings to enable people who work to join) and these will be co-hosted by our steering committee patient partners. It is proposed that some key points could then be developed as topics/patient presentations for future Annual BritPACT Meetings and that we may be able to bring more patients to those meetings.