Research agenda
| General measures and prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection | |
| 1. | Large unselected registry studies to assess the course of COVID-19 in patients with rare autoimmune diseases compared with the general population. |
| Management of immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory drugs in patients with RMD with COVID-19 | |
| 1. | Large unselected registry studies to assess the risk of Janus kinase inhibitors and immunosuppressants (glucocorticoids, azathioprine, cyclosporine, cyclophosphamide, mycophenolate and tacrolimus) on a worse course of COVID-19. |
| 2. | Studies to assess the impact of other B-cell depleting strategies (eg, belimumab) on the outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 diseases course. |
| 3. | Studies to compare different disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs management strategies in the context of SARS-CoV-2 infection: unchanged, versus dose reduction versus interruption in patients with RMDs. |
| Vaccination of the patients with RMD | |
| 1. | Studies to assess the impact of temporarily stopping medications ‘of concern’ before or after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and supplemental (booster) dosing, in order to improve immunogenicity, and the impact of such strategies on disease activity and need of additional treatments, for example, glucocorticoids. |
| 2. | Studies to assess the impact of an additional dose as part of the initial primary SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in selected subsets of patients with RMDs, in order to improve the humoral and/or cell-mediated immunity to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. |
COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019; RMDs, rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.