BUT WITH ME, IT’S DIFFERENT, DOCTOR. ISN’T IT?
“But doctor, with me it’s different, isn’t it?” A natural question, because osteoarthritis progresses differently in everyone. Currently, 1.5 million people in the Netherlands have osteoarthritis, and that number is growing. Despite the differences, the symptoms impact everything we do—from getting out of bed to taking a walk in the park. These differences also create a great need for personalized treatment. To achieve this, we need more insight into the characteristics of the individual and the disease process, which is currently lacking. TopTreat aims to change this by precisely mapping the characteristics and progression of this disease.
TOPTREAT COHORT
The foundation of this research lies in Work Package 2: the TopTreat cohort. Within this work package, we follow 500 people with osteoarthritis over three years. Over this extended period, we expect to identify differences between individuals. We map these differences by collecting various characteristics and performing different measurements. We ask how people with osteoarthritis feel, measure how they move, and monitor how their disease progresses. Additionally, we conduct physical examinations, analyze substances in the blood, and take X-rays. Some of these measurements are repeated at the end of the three years. In the meantime, participants complete a short questionnaire every three months.
PATIENT REPRESENTATIVES
Patient representatives are closely involved in setting up the research. They have helped design our measurements and also assist in generating ideas and plans to ensure we don’t lose sight of participants. We want to be able to follow as many participants as possible for the full three years to draw accurate conclusions from all the data we collect.
PERSONALIZED TREATMENT
Based on all this data, we hope to distinguish several groups to move towards personalized treatment. The cohort—the people we follow over time—is truly the backbone of the TopTreat research. Perhaps in the future, the answer in the consultation room will be: “That’s right, and we can do something about it.”
