Helena Canhão, Principal Investigator of EpiDoc Unit - Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases won the Janssen Immunology Real World Evidence Award 2017 with the project "Portuguese portrait of psoriatic arthritis".
The main focus of the work was to unveil the prevalence and consequences of psoriatic arthritis, a chronic inflammatory disorder, in the Portuguese population. The results confirmed the major physical, mental and socio-economic impact of this disorder in our country. This is the first population-based evaluation of Portuguese patients with this disease and prove the need of adequately treat patients to prevent long-term damage and early retirement.
EpiDoc Unit also won two more awards through Portuguese Society of Rheumatology sponsored by Pfizer.
The project HealthyBone TV led by Ana Rodrigues won 10.000 euros to design, develop and implement a TV application dedicated to Osteoporosis patients. This project will be designed to motivate treatment adhesion and lifestyle improvement. Moreover, the application will improve the literacy on osteoporosis and osteoporosis treatment.
The project ReumaHEART led by Helena Canhão, group leader from EpiDoc Unit, won 5.000 euros to examine the impact of Inflammatory Rheumatic Disease in the development of cardiovascular diseases. This award will help to support the project and the Portuguese population with Inflammatory Rheumatic Disease will benefit from this study with a simple personal assessment of cardiovascular diseases risk.