Prof Stamp’s study showed it was safe and effective to increase doses of a crucial drug for managing gout. It had provided clear evidence in an area where there was much confusion worldwide, award officials said.
Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis, affecting tens of millions worldwide.
Prof Stamp, an Otago University medical graduate who is based at the university’s Christchurch campus, was "thrilled" to be awarded the Medicines New Zealand’s Value of Medicines Award earlier this month.
The award came with $20,000 which she will use to advance her research on predicting patient responses to allopurinol, a drug used in managing gout.
Prof Stamp said some people made jokes about gout, but the reality was it could be "terribly crippling" and "extremely painful condition".
The award judges said Prof Stamp’s study would have a "high impact on patient care, especially benefiting Maori, Pacific and renal patients".
The research would also have a big impact internationally, they said.
Prof Stamp, who has undertaken gout-related research for the past 15 years, said the study results had already proved "very important" for changing medical treatment, and pointed to "a much better way to manage the condition".
In 2016, a group of international gout experts advised doctors not to use higher doses of the drug. But Prof Stamp’s robust clinical study, involving 183 patients in Auckland and Christchurch, found using higher doses of allopurinol was safe and could prevent ongoing attacks of the painful disease. It could also help stop the disease from progressing to a chronic state in many patients.
Prof Stamp said there had earlier been a lot of concern from a "patient safety point of view", but the Otago study suggested that doctors could consider increasing the dose for some patients who were already "tolerating" the drug well.
In the study, published in the prestigious journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, one group of patients had increased doses, while another group did not. The study found the two groups experienced similar rates of side effects, but those on higher doses had better blood results for a crucial measure of the disease.
Arthritis New Zealand says gout is the second-most common form of arthritis in New Zealand.About 162,000 New Zealanders aged 20 and over have gout. These 2014 figures were up on about 136,000 in 2012.
Gout causes painful swelling of joints, especially toes, knees, elbows, wrists and fingers, and men, Maori and Pacific people are most affected, the organisation says.