EULAR research exchange programme – a participant’s experience

Tell Me Something Interesting II

Stephanie Ling is an EMEUNEWS editor and was a participant of the inaugural ACR/APLAR/EULAR Research Exchange at the APLAR 2023 Congress. Now that this year’s APLAR 2024 Congress in Singapore has just concluded, she writes about some of her experiences from last year.

Welcome to Chiang Mai

At the end of 2023, I had the enormous privilege to be selected to participate in the first-ever ACR/APLAR/EULAR Research Exchange. The APLAR 2023 Congress was to be held in the beautiful city of Chiang Mai, nestled in the mountains of northern Thailand.

Exchange participants had registration to the whole congress included, so we had the opportunity to attend the pre-congress hands-on workshops. However, I decided to use the extra time to explore the city and learn about the local culture.

There are over 300 Buddhist temples in Chiang Mai of varying size and grandeur. I never got tired of discovering new temples around every street corner.

I also used the time to visit an elephant sanctuary, which was hands-down one of the best experiences of my life. We were able to feed and bathe the elephants and get up close to these amazing animals.

The APLAR 2023 Congress

Attending the APLAR 2023 Congress was such a great experience. It was so interesting to hear how rheumatological conditions manifest with different phenotypes in the Asia-Pacific region, and the different ways that more severe disease manifestations are managed.

I attended an excellent presentation on the physiological processes behind the pathogenesis of Takayasu arteritis, which is more frequently studied in Asia than in Europe due to its increased incidence and prevalence. This biological understanding can inform novel treatments and drug repurposing in future clinical trials, and this was discussed in detail in a later session as well.

I learned about how Asian populations with systemic sclerosis have different phenotypes and even different susceptibility genetic loci. This is particularly relevant to my clinical practice working in Manchester in the UK, where our patient population is extremely multi-cultural with diverse ethnicities. I have now been able to apply some of the learning points from this session into my daily clinical rheumatology practice.

I particularly enjoyed a research presentation from a group based in Taiwan who are using large-scale population-level multi-omics data to carry out precision medicine research with similar analytical methods to those that I use in my own research. It was inspiring to see others working in a similar field to me, and how methodology can be implemented on a large population scale.

All about the socialising (I mean networking)

The hospitality during the whole exchange was fantastic. The night before the main Congress began, we were invited to dinner with the Congress committee. This was a great chance to hear about clinical practice and research being undertaken in the region first-hand, and we were really privileged to be able to speak to research heavyweights in a relaxed setting.

We were also kindly invited to the APLAR Young Rheumatologists (AYR) annual social dinner, which was an extremely fun evening of dinner, followed by AYR members and even some members of the main APLAR committee entertaining us with a quiz, karaoke, tunes on the piano and traditional Thai umbrella dancing.

Before the final day of the congress, we were also invited to the APLAR gala dinner, where we were treated to Thai haute cuisine and entertainment by a traditional Thai dance troupe, who wowed us with their intricate and gravity-defying choreography.

Then, it was time to fly to Singapore for the next part of the research exchange!

The Singapore research exchange

We then travelled to Singapore to take part in a research exchange programme with our colleagues in Singapore. This was because Thailand, where the congress was held, does not host an APLAR Centre of Excellence, but our new friends in Singapore kindly agreed to host the exchange participants instead.

We had some time before our first session, so we used the time to get to experience the culture of Singapore. My family is Malaysian and I have previously visited Singapore a few times in the past, so I used the opportunity to revisit some of my old haunts and, of course, eat some of the food that is not as easy to get in the UK!

On the first day of the research exchange, we were hosted at Singapore General Hospital, where both our hosts and some of the exchange participants gave presentations about their current research. We were also treated to presentations about “a day in the life” of a rheumatology trainee (resident) in Singapore and the history of rheumatology in Singapore.

On the second day of the exchange, I was allocated to a placement at the National University Hospital of Singapore. We were given a tour of the stunning grounds and facilities, and we listened to case and research presentations from rheumatology trainees and allied healthcare professionals based at the hospital.

One of the consultants and the lead clinical pharmacist presented their work on implementing a telemedicine service for serum urate monitoring in the context of gout treatment. They demonstrated improved compliance with therapy and a reduction in serum urate levels in their patient population. This example of quality improvement could represent a way for services around the world to achieve cost savings and improved clinical outcomes, and was a new idea for me to bring home.

We also heard a presentation from a nurse consultant on her doctoral research, outlining how a trial of online patient engagement and coaching improved compliance with oral DMARD therapy. This represents an example of excellent clinical practice improving care for patients on DMARDs.

Conclusion

Taking part in the ACR/APLAR/EULAR research exchange at the APLAR 2023 Congress was one of the best experiences of my research career. I have made great friends, and all the European participants even managed to meet up at the EULAR 2024 Congress this year (see below).

The clinical and research presentations at both the APLAR Congress and the Singapore research exchange have already informed and improved my clinical practice, helping me to provide more patient-centred care to those from diverse groups that aren’t traditionally covered in western European medical textbooks.

Finally, the hospitality in both Thailand and Singapore were excellent, and I was extremely well-fed when I returned to the UK!

If you are considering applying to a research exchange programme through ACR, APLAR or EULAR and you are reading this blog post, I would strongly encourage you to apply. You will have an amazing experience and you will make great friends from all around the world. I just wish I could do it all again!

To hear an interview that I carried out with some of this year’s research exchange participants at the EULAR 2024 Congress, please click here.

Thanks for reading.