History of Your Rheum

In 2013 the team at the Centre for Adolescent Rheumatology at UCL , funded by Arthritis Research UK now called Versus Arthritis felt it was vital  to include the whole of the UK clinical and research community in adolescent rheumatology activity.

Therefore, the Barbara Ansell National Network for Adolescent Rheumatology (BANNAR) was formed. The purpose of BANNAR was to create a network of professional people, both clinicians (doctors) and researchers, who work in adolescent rheumatology to oversee all the rheumatology research being conducted in this area. BANNAR also wanted to get young people and their families more involved with research. BANNAR moved to be run through Versus Arthritis in 2021 , with a UK-wide team leading the BANNAR work. 

Early in the growth of BANNAR, in partnership with the Centre for Adolescent Rheumatology at UCL  launched a project led by Dr J McDonagh ,  the Young People’s Opinions Underpinning Research  in Rheumatology (YOUR Rheum) project, of which you may have heard of, or even been a part of.

Young People’s Opinions Underpinning Research (YOURR) project

One of BANNAR’s projects is the Young People’s Opinions Underpinning Research (YOURR) project, of which you may have heard of, or even been a part of.

The YOURR project has two main parts:

1. To conduct research with young people to understand their research priorities i.e. what research do young people think is most important in rheumatology?
2. To set up a Young Person’s Advisory Group to get young people with rheumatic conditions involved in rheumatology research.

Vocal

In 2015- July 2016 BANNAR worked with the Public Programmes Team, now Vocal (a not-for-profit organisation based in Manchester) to conduct 16 focus groups across the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) with young people aged 10-24 with rheumatic conditions. These focus groups were the first part of the YOURR project looking at research priorities.

In July 2016 BANNAR and Vocal started the Young Person’s Advisory Group, and this website is the Group’s official website. The group’s first meeting was held on 15th October 2016 in Manchester. Since this meeting the Group members have voted to name the group ‘Your Rheum’.