Dr. Gillian Hawker, senior research scientist at the Women’s College Research Institute heads the Canadian Osteoarthritis Research Program (CORP). CORP brings together a multidisciplinary team of researchers from a number of institutions and a variety of disciplinary backgrounds including rheumatology, orthopedic surgery, sleep and pain medicine, mental health, epidemiology/health services research, and the behavioural sciences. CORP's objective is to reduce the impact of osteoarthritis in people living with this condition by increasing our understanding of the cause, consequences and time course of pain in osteoarthritis, with a focus on the inter-relationship among pain, fatigue and mental health in this condition. In addition, CORP works to identify:

• Predictors of disability in osteoarthritis
• Patient and provider characteristics that determine optimal care, including use of total joint replacement (TJR) surgery
• Economic consequences of osteoarthritis to the person, caregivers, and the health care system, including wait times

Use this link to learn more about the Canadian Osteoarthritis Research Program (CORP).

Conference Posters on Osteoarthritis Pain and Fatigue

Members of the research team presented posters about some of their work at the December 2006 Osteoarthritis Special Research Initiatives Workshop. The Osteoarthritis Special Research Initiative program is funded by the Canadian Arthritis Network and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis (CIHR/IMHA) to bring together transdisciplinary research teams in several theme areas identified by a broad group of stakeholders as areas of unmet needs. One of these theme areas is the determinants and consequences of pain and fatique in osteoarthritis. Here is a selection of posters from that meeting:

• Determinants and consequences of pain and fatique in osteoarthritis using a biopsychosocial approach (a team overview)
• Pain attitudes, pain coping, social support and self-reported pain in osteoarthritis
• The impact of concomitant persistant back problems on participation in people with hip/knee osteoarthritis.