Clinical Trials and Outcomes Branch

Dr. Michael Ward
Acting Chief
Phone: 301-496-7263
E-mail: wardm1@mail.nih.gov

Health outcomes represent all physical and social consequences of disease. These include symptoms, functioning, costs, complications of treatment, and mortality.

The overall goals of our research effort are:

Understand the factors that influence health outcomes of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, ankylosing spondylitis, and rheumatoid arthritis
Develop new tools and techniques to measure outcomes in these diseases
Assess rheumatic disease in an underserved minority community
Compare outcomes among patients having orthopedic surgery

Patient-related factors, such as demographic characteristics, genetic background, and treatment, influence health outcomes. Certain provider-related factors, including access to care, also influence heath outcomes. We are studying genetic, clinical, and treatment influences on functional and structural outcomes in ankylosing spondylitis, and provider influences on outcomes in patients with lupus nephritis and hospitalized patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Among measures of health outcomes, we are testing criteria for clinically important changes in symptoms in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and are developing methods to quantify the progression of spinal fusion in patients with ankylosing spondylitis. We are examining associations between chronic bisphosphonate use and bone structure and risk of hip fracture.

Selected Publications

Reveille JD, Ximenes A, Ward MM. Economic considerations of the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis. Am J Med Sci. 2012 May;343(5):371-4.

Yazdanyar A, Chester Wasko M, Kraemer KL, Ward MM. Perioperative all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: Comparison with unaffected controls and persons with diabetes mellitus. Arthritis Rheum. 2012 Feb 21. doi: 10.1002/art.34428.

Jang JH, Green CE, Assassi S, Reveille JD, Ward MM, Weisman MH, Nicassio PM. The contribution of disease activity on functional limitations over time through psychological mediators: a 12-month longitudinal study in patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2011 Aug 28.

Evans DM, Spencer CC, Pointon JJ, Su Z, Harvey D, Kochan G, Oppermann U, Dilthey A, Pirinen M, Stone MA, Appleton L, Moutsianas L, Leslie S, Wordsworth T, Kenna TJ, Karaderi T, Thomas GP, Ward MM, Weisman MH, Farrar C, Bradbury LA, Danoy P, Inman RD, Maksymowych W, Gladman D, Rahman P; Spondyloarthritis Research Consortium of Canada (SPARCC), Morgan A, Marzo-Ortega H, Bowness P, Gaffney K, Gaston JS, Smith M, Bruges-Armas J, Couto AR, Sorrentino R, Paladini F, Ferreira MA, Xu H, Liu Y, Jiang L, Lopez-Larrea C, Díaz-Peña R, López-Vázquez A, Zayats T, Band G, Bellenguez C, Blackburn H, Blackwell JM, Bramon E, Bumpstead SJ, Casas JP, Corvin A, Craddock N, Deloukas P, Dronov S, Duncanson A, Edkins S, Freeman C, Gillman M, Gray E, Gwilliam R, Hammond N, Hunt SE, Jankowski J, Jayakumar A, Langford C, Liddle J, Markus HS, Mathew CG, McCann OT, McCarthy MI, Palmer CN, Peltonen L, Plomin R, Potter SC, Rautanen A, Ravindrarajah R, Ricketts M, Samani N, Sawcer SJ, Strange A, Trembath RC, Viswanathan AC, Waller M, Weston P, Whittaker P, Widaa S, Wood NW, McVean G, Reveille JD, Wordsworth BP, Brown MA, Donnelly P; Australo-Anglo-American Spondyloarthritis Consortium (TASC); Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 (WTCCC2). Interaction between ERAP1 and HLA-B27 in ankylosing spondylitis implicates peptide handling in the mechanism for HLA-B27 in disease susceptibility. Nat Genet. 2011 Jul 10;43(8):761-7.

Stojanov S, Lapidus S, Chitkara P, Feder H, Salazar JC, Fleisher TA, Brown MR, Edwards KM, Ward MM, Colbert RA, Sun HW, Wood GM, Barham BK, Jones A, Aksentijevich I, Goldbach-Mansky R, Athreya B, Barron KS, Kastner DL. Periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis, and adenitis (PFAPA) is a disorder of innate immunity and Th1 activation responsive to IL-1 blockade. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Apr 8

Louie GH, Tektonidou MG, Caban-Martinez AJ, Ward MM. Sleep disturbances in adults with arthritis: prevalence, mediators, and subgroups at greatest risk. Data from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2011 Feb;63(2):247-60.

Ward MM. Sulfasalazine for the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis: Relic or niche medication? Arthritis Rheum.2011 Jan 10.

Jang JH, Ward MM, Rucker AN, Reveille JD, Davis JC Jr, Weisman MH, Learch TJ. Ankylosing spondylitis: patterns of radiographic involvement--a re-examination of accepted principles in a cohort of 769 patients.Radiology. 2011 Jan;258(1):192-8.

Assassi S, Reveille JD, Arnett FC, Weisman MH, Ward MM, Agarwal SK, Gourh P, Bhula J, Sharif R, Sampat K, Mayes MD, Tan FK. Whole-blood gene expression profiling in ankylosing spondylitis shows upregulation of toll-like receptor 4 and 5. J Rheumatol. 2011 Jan;38(1):87-98.

Tektonidou MG, Ward MM. Validity of clinical associations of biomarkers in translational research studies: the case of systemic autoimmune diseases. Arthritis Res Ther. 2010;12(5):R179.

See extended list of publications

Updated March 12, 2013