The breadth of the OMERACT agenda is seen in Table 1 (below), which summarizes the various working groups that are currently functioning.
Current OMERACT Research Agenda
The current research agenda for OMERACT is broadening significantly. The program at OMERACT 10 includes a special segment dedicated to John Sharp, MD, who was a great contributor to the OMERACT concept. This segment will review the status of outcome measures in imaging as well as defining a research agenda for the future in this area. Other major sessions include gout, ankylosing spondylitis, fibromyalgia, vasculitis, patient-reported outcomes, and major review of remission/flare in RA (for full review of the program, visit www.OMERACT.org).
Other groups cover a wide range of topics related to the development of new outcome measures. These topics include psoriasis, synovial biopsy, biochemical and immunologic markers, osteoarthritis, worker productivity, health literacy, total joint replacement, and connective tissue disease, to name but a few. We are also exploring newer consensus techniques in addition to the now more traditional Delphi technique. In the future, we hope that some of these activities will be carried out online and allow the OMERACT process to proceed more rapidly
Where To From Here?
We hope to have tempted you to become an OMERACTer, albeit a virtual one, and that you visit our Web site. We hope that you consider how outcome measures can assist you not only in formal clinical trials but also in how you conduct your clinical practice and how you assess response in your patients. In future articles, we will take you on an in-depth tour of one or two of OMERACT’s major research agendas.
Dr. Brooks is director of the Australian Health Workforce Institute at the University of Melbourne in Parkville, Victoria, Australia. Dr. Boers is part of the department of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at VU University Medical Centre in The Netherlands. Dr. Simon is an employee of SDG, LLC, in Cambridge, Mass. Dr. Strand is with the division of immunology at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. Dr. Tugwell is with the Institute of Population Health at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada.
