Ida K. Bos-Haugen, Daniel Huseby Bordvik and Elisabeth Mulrooney participated in Oarsi 2025 in South Korea. What is the impression after participating?
Ida K. Bos-Haugen, you were recently at the Oarsi Conference in South Korea. What is Oarsi, and why is this conference important to you?
- Oarsi stands for Osteoarthritis Research Society International and is a leading international organization for osteoarthritis. This year they marked their 35th anniversary, and for the very first time the conference was held in Asia-more specifically in Incheon, just outside Seoul. With over 900 participants from all over the world, it became a real global and successful collection.
Who from Remedy participated?
-We were three from Remedy who traveled: I myself, PhD candidate Daniel Huseby Bordvik and postdoctoral fellow Elisabeth Mulrooney. We had both presentations and participated in various professional meetings and networking activities.
What did you present at the conference?
-Daniel had an oral presentation from the NOR-Hand study, which is a unique study of hand-arthritis. He has studied various pain phenotypes and how they develop over time.
He identified four main groups based on self -reported outcome measures, and saw that the patients with the most pain also had the most anxiety, depression, disaster thoughts and sleep problems.
This emphasizes how closely related pain is to emotional and cognitive factors. Excitingly, the majority remained in the same phenotype even after 3.5 years.
A highlight was also highlighted by Elisabeth Mulrooney's research?
-Yes, Elisabeth's article on pain phenotypes in hand -arthritis was highlighted as one of the highlights of the Year in Review session.
It was also named Publication of the Month in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage in August 2024, and was nominated for the Publication of the Year . It is very fun when young researchers get such clear recognition for their work.
Was it the other Nor-Hand data presented?
-Yes, Marcin Wolski from Curtin University in Perth in Australia presented results from analyzes of X-rays from Nor-Hand.
They have studied the trabecular bone structure of the finger joints and seen that changes here are associated with future erosions. This can provide more sensitive information on disease development than traditional X -ray assessment.
This is particularly interesting for the Merino study, where we will, among other things, investigate whether methotrexate can slow down the progression of erosive handrestrosis. By the way, I was the last author of this abstract.
You also had your own presentation. What was it about?
- I was invited to share experiences from the work of developing classification criteria for hand -arthritis, which can now be useful in the work of creating similar criteria for osteoarthritis in the back. It was both useful and inspiring - and also led to new collaborative projects being discussed.
You recently got a leadership role in a new project?
- That's right. I have now been appointed as chair of the management committee of an Oarsi-supported project that will develop new classification criteria for early knee arthritis. During the conference we had meetings in the project group, and it is an exciting and important work I look forward to contributing to.
Was it time to care for other collaboration?
- Yes, absolutely. We met our Danish partners and planned further work on an international multi -center study at topical NSAIDs at hand -arthritis. We also discussed possible new collaborative projects with international partners. Oarsi is an important meeting place for networking and joint initiatives.
How were the younger researchers followed up at the conference?
- Oarsi is very keen to support young researchers. A separate mentoring session is arranged in which around 200 mentors and meant participate.
I was a mentor for a group that discussed strategic choices in research and career development, while Daniel and Elisabeth were meant in groups that focused on pain, networking and mechanisms.
And finally-did you experience some of South Korea outside the conference room?
- Yes, fortunately! We got to experience both food, culture and nature. We visited temples, tasted exciting Korean dishes and took some nice runs in beautiful parks and natural areas. It provided both professional and cultural refills!
