Salford Professor receives abstract award at the EULAR 2025 Annual Congress

The award was presented for the WORKWELL Trial, a large, UK-wide, multicentre randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the effectiveness of a job retention vocational rehabilitation programme for people with inflammatory arthritis (IA). Funded by Versus Arthritis, the trial aimed to help people with IA stay in work by addressing priority work-related problems through occupational therapy-led work assessments, job modifications, and self-management strategies.

Up to 50% of people with IA stop working within 10 years of diagnosis. The WORKWELL intervention was developed to tackle this issue, offering tailored, one-to-one support delivered over several months. While the trial found no statistically significant improvement in work productivity compared to the control group, it provided vital insights into the complexity of supporting employment retention in people with arthritis, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This award recognises the collaborative effort of a multi-institutional team, led by Chief Investigator Professor Yeliz Prior at the University of Salford. The WORKWELL team included collaborators from:

• University of Salford: Dr Jennifer Parker, Dr Simone Battista, Prof Alison Hammond Dr Angela Ching,
• University of Manchester: Dr Sarah Cotterill, Prof Chris Sutton, Selman Mirza, Fiona Holland, Dr Antonia Marsden, Prof Suzanne Verstappen, Dr Martin Eden, Garima Dalal, Prof Terence O’Neill
• Lancaster University: Dr Paula Holland
• University of Nottingham: Prof Kathryn Radford
• Monash University and University of Southampton: Prof Karen Walker-Bone
• Lancashire Clinical Trials Unit (UCLan)
• Patient Research Partner: June Culley (on behalf of the WORKWELL PPI Panel)

Following the trial, the team co-produced WORKWELL Digital through Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE). This online version of the clinical intervention integrates learning from the RCT and aims to increase access to work rehabilitation for people with arthritis in a more scalable and flexible format.