Taking an integrated approach to reduce the time to diagnosis of axial SpA to one year from symptom onset through a set of interrelated interventions

On 1 September 2022, the application process will officially open for the National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society’s (NASS) Integrated Pilot, part of our groundbreaking Act on Axial SpA campaign, designed to end diagnostic delay in axial SpA.

In June 2021 we published a route map to achieve a Gold Standard Time to Diagnosis of one year through our Act on Axial SpA campaign. The campaign is fully funded by UCB. The next phase of the campaign is to achieve a step change at scale and speed by implementing an integrated set of interventions concurrently in one health economy.

Our programme will only truly work if we are able to support the patient from the moment of symptom onset right through to their diagnosis in rheumatology. The best awareness campaign may fail if, when the patient gets to primary care, the professional has no understanding of the condition, and no referral pathway in place. Likewise, the patient will not benefit if, when they get to rheumatology, the wrong MRI is done, or the image is assessed by someone without an understanding of axial SpA (including Ankylosing Spondylitis).

You can read more about the integrated pilot in our concept note here.

Only an integrated programme, that follows the person from symptom onset to diagnosis, can truly be successful. Therefore, we want to create an opportunity to determine the maximum potential effectiveness of the four solutions working in consort to reduce time to diagnosis. We want to use the learning and results to demonstrate to others – particularly to Government Health Departments – what might be possible with full implementation of the Gold Standard approach.

Applicants interested in working in partnership with NASS on the integrated pilot are invited to have an informal discussion with NASS. We are hoping to have these informal discussions during September 2022, before accepting formal applications (by application form) during October 2022.

For more information on the pilot please contact joeeddison@nass.co.uk