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NOTE: If you are interested in participating in this research, please contact the Study Coordinator by emailing ASresearch@cshs.org or by calling 310-423-3032.

Anyone who has suffered years of back pain before diagnosis of AS, will appreciate SAA's next research study: the development of a screening tool to identify people at risk for AS.

In this case, the tool is actually a questionnaire that will help to differentiate back pain caused by AS from other causes of back pain. At the conclusion of the two-year study, the questionnaire will be readily available on the Internet for those searching for the cause of their pain. The way in which it will work is that after an individual has answered the questions, a score will be generated in real time that states the likelihood of that person having AS or not. Information on the disease and instructions for where to seek help will also be provided.

After twelve months of preparation, it was exciting to finally hold a kick-off meeting to officially begin the project. The meeting was held at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles where Principal Investigator, Michael Weisman, MD, is Chief of Rheumatology. Dr. Weisman's team will be working with Cerner Health Insights to conduct the study, which is designed to identify and validate the questions to ensure that they predict the likelihood of having AS. There are four phases to the project:

• Phase 1: Developing an initial set of questions that are understandable by patients.
  
• Phase 2: Testing the questions on patients with AS and those with back pain without AS to identify those that are most predictive of AS.
  
• Phase 3: Testing the questions on a larger population of patients to further identify the
  most predictive questions and eliminating the less predictive questions.
  
• Phase 4: Placing the questions on the Internet for final testing.

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A panel of AS experts has been convened to give guidance to the project. The panelists represent various segments of the medical field including physicians, PhD's, a nurse, and an epidemiologist. Three are from Veterans Hospitals, where many AS patients are seen. Their role at the first meeting included tackling key decisions in the design of the study and rating the relevance of items for the questionnaire.

Ultimately, the screening tool will help to identify new cases, greatly improve early diagnosis, encourage care-seeking among patients who learn that they are at-risk for AS, provide useful information to patients and physicians, and will help raise awareness about AS.

NOTE: If you are interested in participating in this research, please contact the Study Coordinator by emailing ASresearch@cshs.org or by calling 310-423-3032.

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