Assessment of Quality of Life in Graves' Ophthalmopathy

伊丽莎白·布拉德利博士的长期职业目标是作为一名独立的临床调查员研究格雷夫斯眼病。这份申请提出了一个分两个阶段的职业发展计划，这将为她提供许多未来成功所必需的工具。在获奖期的头两年，布拉德利博士将完成约翰霍普金斯大学公共卫生学院临床调查研究生培训计划的课程工作。约翰霍普金斯大学眼科流行病学希拉·韦斯特博士将在整个颁奖期间担任主要导师。布拉德利博士将在梅奥诊所度过该奖项的最后三年，在梅奥的共同导师丽贝卡·巴恩博士的指导下，完成一项关于格雷夫斯眼病对健康相关生活质量的影响的研究。约翰霍普金斯大学为布拉德利博士提供了一位在眼科临床研究方面具有专业知识的导师，以及其公共卫生学院和医学院的威尔默眼科研究所的许多资源。梅奥诊所提供积极参与Graves眼病临床研究的导师，以及由NIH资助的已建立的生活质量研究项目的资源。Graves眼病是一种与自身免疫性甲状腺疾病相关的浸润性眼眶疾病。尽管据报道，内科和外科治疗可以改善这种疾病的一些表现，但目前治疗格雷夫斯眼病的相关副作用往往会削弱它们的益处。此外，缺乏衡量许多疾病表现的客观指标。这些确实存在的客观措施未能全面评估疾病及其治疗对患者与健康有关的生活质量的影响。布拉德利博士计划开发一种有效、可靠的Graves眼病专用HRQL仪器，并获得该仪器在Graves眼病患者群体中表现的基线流行病学数据。这些努力将成为布拉德利博士通过内科和外科临床试验研究格雷夫斯眼病治疗方法这一长期目标的重要准备步骤。

Dr. Elizabeth Bradley's long-term career goal is to study Graves' opthalmopathy as an independent clinical investigator. This application proposes a two-phased career development program that will provide her with many of the tools necessary for future success. In the first two years of the award period, Dr. Bradley will complete course work through the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health's Graduate Train Program in Clinical Investigation. Johns Hopkins ophthalmic epidemiologic Dr. Sheila West will serve as primary mentor throughout the award period. Dr. Bradley will spend the final three years of the award at the Mayo Clinic, completing a study on the impact on Graves' opthalmopathy on health-related quality of life under the guidance of Mayo-based co-mentor Dr. Rebecca Bahn. Johns Hopkins offers Dr. Bradley a mentor with expertise in ophthalmic clinical investigation and the many resources of both its School of Public Health and the School of Medicine's Wilmer Eye Institute. The Mayo Clinic offers a mentor actively engaged in clinical investigation in Graves' opthalmopathy practice, and the resources of an established, NIH-funded quality of life research program. Graves'' opthalmopathy is an infiltrative orbital disease associated with autoimmune thyroid disease. Although medical and surgical interventions have been reported to improve some of the manifestations of the disease, the associated side effects of current treatments for Graves' opthalmopathy often temper their benefits. Additionally, objective indices by which to measure many of the disease manifestations are lacking. These objective measures that do exist fail to provide a comprehensive assessment of the impact of the disease and its treatment on patient health-related quality of life. Dr. Bradley plans to develop a valid, reliable Graves' opthalmopathy-specific HRQL instrument and to obtain baseline epidemiologic data on the performance of the instrument in a population of Graves' opthalmopathy patients. These efforts will serve as important preparatory steps toward Dr. Bradley's long-term goal of studying treatments of Graves' opthalmopathy through medical and surgical clinical trials.