There are no blood serum markers to identify Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) in clinical practice. About 30 percent of patients with Psoriasis will develop Psoriatic Arthritis within 5-10 years of diagnosis. The lack of blood tests that can confirm the diagnosis and both patient and at times provider unawareness lead to diagnostic delays and worse outcomes in PsA patients. Many screening questionnaires have been developed to help identify those patients with psoriasis that will develop psoriatic arthritis. While several of them are easy to administer (ex. PEST – psoriasis epidemiology screening tool) and validated through clinical research, these questionnaires are not easily introduced and used in clinical practice.
This scoping review will undertake the task of defining what those barriers are based on previously published literature.
Student Role/Responsibility: A scoping review of the already published literature will be conducted in collaboration with UMass Chan librarians and Rheumatology fellows. Step 1 of the review is already completed and over 2000 abstracts have been screened to go forward to Step 2. Step 2 will include targeted and quick review of just over 300 published papers to allow inclusion into the final step 3 of the scoping review. At this point, the remaining articles will be looked at in detail to identify barriers to implementing screening questionnaires in clinical practice.
Depending on student preference and motivation, opportunity to write the first draft or sections of the scoping review will be given once Step 3 is complete.