One of the main goals of MISSION-RA is to ensure that people living with Rheumatoid Arthritis are at the centre of the research, and are involved in co-design of the MISSION-RA app from start, to finish.

The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) are delivery partners for the MISSION-RA project, and have been supporting the MISSION-RA team to involve people living with Rheumatoid Arthritis in the Research. Ailsa Bosworth (founder of NRAS and National Patient Champion) and Teresa Shakespeare-Smith (NRAS volunteer) are both co-researchers for MISSION-RA, and are playing a key role in delivery of the research alongside the wider Patient Research Partner Committee. Together, Ailsa and Teresa have recently been conducting interviews and focus groups with 30 people living with Rheumatoid Arthritis at the NRAS headquarters. The discussions that were had were extremely interesting, insightful and thought provoking, and will be used to help co-design the MISSION-RA app.

Thank you to Ailsa and Teresa for all their hard work, and for the participants for their time, support of the MISSION-RA study, and their willingness to open up about their experiences of living with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

We are looking for more people to take part in interviews and focus groups to help inform the co-design of the MISSION-RA app. More details about how to get involved can be found here.