March 2021

March has come, the weather is picking up, Covid is still here. Seeing it's been a while since the last blog, here is our main news: The 2021 conference is not taking place as a face2face conference this year either, there may be some webinar type online events instead. The DISC trial still needs more patients. From the team: DISC Trial is an ongoing study in the NHS to investigate if an injection of collagenase is as good as surgery at treating Dupuytren's Contracture, and whether the effects of treatment are sustained in the short term. This will help decide which treatment for Dupuytren’s is the safest and most effective for patients in the near future. Every participant is really important to our research and we thank those who are already involved in the trial. Your contribution is most appreciated and continued support to complete study questionnaires is important to ensure we have a good amount of information to report on from this study. Although the DISC trial is nearing the completion of recruitment, we still very much welcome new participants to join the study. If you can access one of the NHS hospitals running the study, meet the necessary criteria and are willing to take part in the study, you will be assigned to get either surgery or collagenase injection. This will be done randomly by a computer, with an equal chance of getting either of the two treatments. Neither you nor the surgeon chooses which of the two treatments you will receive, but you will receive care as expected for an NHS patient regardless. After treatment, patients will be asked to complete questionnaires for up to two-years to assess how they feel about their hand and the bend in the finger will be measured at regular intervals. Further details regarding the DISC Trial are available on the study website: https://www.york.ac.uk/healthsciences/research/trials/research/trials/disc/ More general information on taking part in research in the UK is available here: NIHR Be Part of Research: https://bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk/ If you are interested in taking part or require any further information about this study, please do not hesitate to contact the DISC Trial Management Team for further information email: disc-trial-group@york.ac.uk Our newsletter will go out shortly with information on an embroidery project, the DISC trial and other news. If you are a member, keep an eye on your inbox 5-7 days from now! If you're not a member, join now!