What a successful two days at the PROTO Third Annual Meeting (13–14 April 2026), held in the inspiring setting of Carlsberg Akademi in Copenhagen, bringing together consortium partners, patients representatives, external advisory boards members and external invited experts.
The presentations showcased progress across clinical development, digital interventions, biomarker discovery and mechanisms of action in early knee OA. From clinical trial updates to advanced imaging and immunometabolic profiling, each WP contributed essential pieces to PROTO’s translational roadmap.
As part of the programme was the workshop “The Perfect OA Intervention Study” sparked a lively discussion on how to design truly impactful OA trials, covering exercise and non-surgical interventions as well as the strengths and limitations of imaging-based outcomes. A live exchange with patient representatives during the workshop brought additional depth, ensuring that questions of trial burden, relevance and acceptability were openly addressed rather than treated as an afterthought.
The “Experiences from the Field: Study Nurses in Clinical Collaboration” session then grounded the programme in daily practice, highlighting the central role of study nurses in recruitment, follow-up and effective communication with participants and the challenges associated to PROTO clinical trial.
Taken together, the WP programme, the interactive workshop with patient representatives and the nurses’ session underlined a shared message: high-quality OA research emerges when rigorous science, patient perspectives and frontline clinical experience are fully integrated.
Thanks to everyone who contributed and are excited to turn these insights into concrete next steps for PROTO’s work.
