Tony (above left); Steph (below left) & Fiona and Steph (right)

Anthony (Tony) Chen, Peter Lanyon, Stephanie Lax and Fiona Pearce from the RECORDER team recently participated in the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) conference in Liverpool (April 23rd-26th 2024) with both Steph and Tony presenting posters on their work.

Stephanie shared her work on patient perspectives on the negative impacts of appearance and weight changes attributed to systemic glucocorticoid treatment of rheumatic diseases.

Tony, whose poster was titled 'Prevalence, Incidence, and Mortality of Raynaud’s Phenomenon, Sjogren’s Syndrome, Scleroderma and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE): an umbrella review of systematic reviews,' shares his experience below.

The BSR Conference was an exhilarating experience for me. Throughout the conference, I attended a variety of sessions, one which stood out to me was the “Trainee session – Are you sure it’s Raynaud’s,” which was highly relevant to my future CPRD research project in the prevalence, incidence, and mortality of Primary Raynaud’s in England, UK. The poster presentation showcased cutting-edge research projects from around the world and I was proud to see my own poster displaying findings from my umbrella review among them. The conference provided an excellent opportunity for networking, allowing me to forge valuable connections and collaborations. I particularly enjoyed engaging with the team at Scleroderma & Raynaud’s UK about my CPRD study. It was rewarding to hear how our key messages resonated with representatives from patient organisations, and it has motivated me to pursue further work in this area.

Vasculitis Workshop

Peter Lanyon, Stephanie Lax and Fiona Pearce also attended the 21st International Vasculitis Workshop in Barcelona earlier in April. Stephanie presented this poster (photo on right). Stephanie's highlights were meeting Zoi Anastasa (Vasculitis UK) and Joanna Robson (lead for the Steroid PRO project) for the first time in person.