Partnering to Improve Osteoarthritis Knee Care
Zong-Ming Li, PhD, vice chair for research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and associate director of the UArizona Arthritis Center, is part of a multi-disciplinary team of researchers recently awarded $3.4 million from the National Institutes of Health to advance understanding of rapid knee deterioration associated with osteoarthritis. C. Kent Kwoh, MD, director of the Arthritis Center and chief of the Division of Rheumatology in the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson, leads the five-year study.
Knee osteoarthritis progresses differently in different patients, with distinct paths of symptoms and structural deterioration. This study will address the challenges that presents for assessment and treatment by documenting disease progression among 10,000 participants. The researcher team hopes to identify novel ways to measure and characterize knee structure to better predict who will likely experience rapid deterioration and who will eventually need knee replacement.
Another member of the team, Xiaoxiao Sun, PhD, assistant professor of biostatistics in the Zuckerman College of Public Health, is also currently collaborating with Li on machine learning to advance the use of ultrasound imaging for carpal arch evaluation and treatment.