More good news on the trustee front

Dear all.

We are able to introduce two more trustees, Mr Richard Shaffer has agreed to join us and become our second radiation therapy expert and trustee; and Mr Dominic Furniss has become a trustee, his help will be invaluable as he is not only a Dupuytren's surgeon but he is principal investigator of the BSSH genetics of Dupuytren's disease consortium.

We are very lucky and extremely honoured to have the trustees we have, not just our two newest but all of them are very clever and dedicated people.

The next step is building up our patient member base, we need people with web skills, fundraising skills, designer skills, patient support skills, any skill or just good intention to help us support patients all over the country, and sometimes even further away.

Don't forget the focus group meeting in London at the end of this month (see our previous blog or our website or facebook page).

Finally the Oxford team is running another study, DISCO (don't start singing it!), for which they want people to fill in a questionnaire and send them a picture of their hands, to find out how Dupuytren's disease affects the community and the individual people. DISCO people!

More research

Last week I noticed an article on a new product that could possibly become another treatment like Collagenase: http://pipelinereview.com/index.php/2013070151428/Proteins-and-Peptides/Halozyme-Presents-New-HTI-501-Data.html.

 

It would probably be used in much the same way, break down a different component of the cords but otherwise not much different I think. I don't know if it's a good development, I am worried that it may become a competition and if Collagenase is not fully accepted as treatment then neither would be financially viable for a company. On the other hand they are not even doing trials yet, so I'd guess it will be another 7-10 years before we could expect it on the market. The fact that there is more research ongoing is very positive though.

Ideally the next step would be a cure rather than a treatment, but I don't think that will happen any time soon.

 

Gary has posted a link to a survey he is doing on facebook, if anyone has the time to answer a few questions please do so.
 http://srvy.it/17XvI7H

 

Enjoy the sun, at leasthand and feet may hurt less now it's finally warm out there!