The purpose of the Brigham and Women’s Rheumatoid Arthritis Sequential Study (BRASS), under the direction of Dr. Nancy Shadick and Dr. Michael Weinblatt, is to determine how genes can be used to predict whether Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) will be mild or severe and to better understand how individuals respond to different drug treatments.

BRASS has over 1500 people diagnosed with RA who are patients at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital and who are followed in the clinic annually and sent questionnaires at six month intervals over a 15 year time span. Additionally, BRASS provides investigators with access to subsets of data as well as methodological support.