Ground-breaking study will improve patients\’ quality of life through personalised treatment
The Irish Haemophilia Society in partnership with RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons Ireland), Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Trinity College, St. James’s Hospital (National Coagulation Centre) and Shire, have announced a major new €4 million, patient-orientated study entitled The Irish Personalised Approach to the Treatment of Haemophilia (iPATH).
This study will develop new and innovative approaches to improve the clinical care of patients with the inherited bleeding disorder haemophilia. Currently, patients with haemophilia are given the same standardised treatments.
The iPATH study seeks to revolutionise the current ‘one size fits all\’ global standard of treatment that has been in place for more than fifty years and develop a new personalised treatment approach that will tailor treatments based on the needs of the individual patient.
The four year iPATH programme is open to all Irish children and adults with moderate or severe haemophilia.
Commenting on the programme’s launch, Brian O\’Mahony, Chief Executive of the Irish Haemophilia Society, said; The future of haemophilia care has to be based on a personalised approach to treatment. We fully expect this exciting, innovative and collaborative research programme to provide us with the answers required to optimise every aspect of future treatment for each individual with haemophilia in Ireland and to achieve results which may well be of global importance,.
Ireland is already at the forefront of organisation of haemophilia care globally and this research should position should position Ireland as global leaders in haemophilia research. Hopefully this research will increase our understanding of the core biological questions which remain unanswered regards haemophilia, such as:
▪️Why do some people with severe haemophilia bleed more than others?
▪️Why do some people with haemophilia get more joint damage than others with the same number of joint bleeds?
▪️How do we optimally individualise treatment to allow each person with haemophilia to live to their full potential?
Answering these fundamental questions should be important, not only to people with haemophilia in Ireland, but to the entire global haemophilia community.
The future of haemophilia treatment is very bright and we are now witnessing an explosion of new possibilities. The next five years in haemophilia treatment may well see more change than in the past 50 years, which is a nice thought with which to enter our 50th year as a society and as a community.