Assessment of Quality of Life in Graves' Ophthalmopathy

伊丽莎白布拉德利的长期职业目标是研究格雷夫斯眼病作为一个独立的临床研究者。这份申请提出了一个两阶段的职业发展计划，将为她提供未来成功所需的许多工具。 在奖励期的前两年，布拉德利博士将通过约翰霍普金斯公共卫生学院的临床研究生培训计划完成课程。约翰霍普金斯眼科流行病学博士希拉韦斯特将担任主要导师在整个颁奖期间。布拉德利博士将在马约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具有眼科临床研究专业知识的导师，并提供了公共卫生学院和医学院威尔默眼科研究所的许多资源。马约诊所提供了一个导师积极参与临床调查格雷夫斯'眼病的做法，和资源的一个既定的，美国国立卫生研究院资助的生活质量研究计划。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。虽然据报道，药物和手术干预可以改善这种疾病的一些表现，但目前治疗Graves眼病的相关副作用往往会削弱其益处。此外，缺乏衡量许多疾病表现的客观指标。现有的这些客观指标未能全面评估疾病及其治疗对患者健康相关生活质量的影响。布拉德利博士计划开发一种有效、可靠的Graves眼病特异性HRQL仪器，并在Graves眼病患者人群中获得该仪器性能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的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.