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Arthritis Research Canada at

CRA & AHPA Annual Scientific Meeting 2022

The annual CRA & AHPA Annual Scientific Meeting was held February 2-5, 2022. The meeting is presented by the Canadian Rheumatology Association and Arthritis Health Professions Association. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting took a virtual format.

The Annual Scientific Meeting is intended to showcase the strengths of the extended rheumatology community, to engage with interactive programming, acquire insights from leading experts, and create networking opportunities. We are proud of the significant role Arthritis Research Canada/Arthrite-recherche Canada played in the sharing and delivery of research presentations and content.

To learn more about Arthritis Research Canada research presented at the 2022 CRA & AHPA Annual Scientific Meeting, please scroll down. We have research on COVID-19 and arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, lupus, and much more.

February 3

Effectiveness of the Making it Work™ Program at Improving Absenteeism in Workers with Inflammatory Arthritis – Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

A randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of the Making it WorkTM program found that, in addition to improving at-work productivity, the program was effective at reducing absenteeism by preventing sick days and work interruptions in workers with inflammatory arthritis across 3 Canadian provinces over 2 years. The program consists of 5 online modules, group meetings, ergonomic and vocational counselling and was designed to help workers with arthritis deal with employment issues.

Research Team: Luquini A, Zheng Y, Xie H, Backman C, Rogers P, Kwok A, Knight A, Gignac M, Mosher D, Li L, Esdaile J, Thorne C, Lacaille D.

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Work Disability and Function in Systematic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE): Early Results of an Exploratory National Study. 

This study looked at how lupus impacts work and showed that patients experience significant limitations in their ability to meet the demands of their work. Scores were comparable to a sample of patients diagnosed with cancer who returned to work for a least 12 hours per week. Quality of life was low, and rates of depression were high. Improved management of work disability and functional impairment is needed.

Research Team: Nowrouzi-Kia B, Avina-Zubieta JA, Fox M, Shaw W, H M, Haaland D, Pope J, Fortin PR, Bingham K, Rozenbojm N, Matsos M, Legault K, Tselios K, Peschken C, Su J, Reynolds J, Ivory C, Gladman D, Urowitz M, Sanchez-Guerrero J, Lim L, Keeling S, Katz P, Touma Z.

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Characteristics of emergency department and urgent care centre use by patients with inflammatory arthritis conditions. 

This research showed that patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA) in Alberta often had visits to emergency departments (EDs) or urgent care centres (UCC), suggesting that access to specialist(s) and primary care physicians does not meet their needs. In 2017, approximately 1/2 of patients with psoriatic arthritis and 1/3 of individuals with rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis and gout accessed emergency services. Most visits occurred during daytime hours. The proportion of overall provincial emergency services that were for gout increased from 2.1 per cent in fiscal year 2008-2009 to 3.6 per cent in fiscal year 2017-2018.

Research Team: Barnabe C, McLane P, Holroyd B, Lang E, Luca N, Katz S, Homik J, Keeling S, McQuitty S, Davidson E, Lin K, Chomistek K, Elliott M, Hildebrandt C, Russon N, Stasiuk M, Barber C. Characteristics of emergency department and urgent care centre use by patients with inflammatory arthritis conditions.

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Does Patient Age Affect Surgical Appropriateness and Influence Surgeon Recommendations for Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty? A Cross-sectional Study of 2,037 Patients.

Younger individuals with knee osteoarthritis referred for knee replacement had similar or greater need for, and readiness or willingness to have surgery, as older individuals, but were at higher risk for complications. Incorporating a new tool that assesses appropriateness for surgery into decision-making about knee replacement surgery may help patients and clinicians consider the risks and benefits in a growing population of young individuals with knee osteoarthritis.

Research Team: Hawker G, Bohm E, Dunbar M, Jones A, Noseworthy T, Marshall D, BEST-Knee Study Team.

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“We don’t all speak with one voice”: A qualitative study exploring perceptions of including patient preferences in clinical trial design.

We interviewed patients and doctors to explore their thoughts on including patient preferences when designing clinical trials and found that including patient preferences when designing trials in rheumatology is important and could make trials more meaningful to patients.

Research Team: Thomas M, Marshall DA, Loyola Sanchez A, Bartlett SJ, Boonen A, Fraenkel L, Proulx L, Voshaar M, Bansback N, Buchbinder R, Guillemin F, Hiligsmann M, Richards DP, Richards P, Shea B, Tugwell P, Falahee M, Hazlewood G.

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Formulation of an Interdisciplinary Care Pathway for Early Rheumatoid Arthritis.

The ‘Calgary Early RA Care Pathway’ emphasizes a patient-centered and interdisciplinary approach to early RA identification and treatment. Implementation and evaluation of this care pathway is ongoing to support optimal care for patients.

Research Team: Gukova K, Barber CEB, Hazlewood G, Arbillaga H, MacMullan P, Zimmerman G, Barnabe C, Choi M, Barber M, Charlton A, Job B, Osinski K, Spencer N, Knott M, Pirani P.

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Productivity loss for parents of children with arthritis: The impact of disease activity status.

We examined the loss of productivity of parents who care for children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and explored the impact of the effect depending on whether the disease was active or inactive. We found that JIA results in socioeconomic burden to parents, including lost work days or low at-work productivity.  However, those effects were significantly lower in parents of children whose disease was inactive disease at the time.

Research Team: Grazziotin L, Marshall DA. 

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Decline in clinical severity of Paget’s disease of bone: Comparison between a contemporary cohort and a historical cohort 

In comparison to a historical cohort of patients with Paget’s disease, a disease of the bones, we observed that patients from our contemporary cohort, i.e. diagnosed after the year 2000, were older at the time of diagnosis, had mainly involvement of one bone area, rather than widespread bone involvement and had fewer complications of Paget’s such as fractures and bone deformities. This decline in clinical severity of Paget’s disease of the bones in Quebec is consistent with studies reported in other countries.

Research Team: Gendron E, Bouchard F, Singbo N, Brown JP, Michou L.

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Cost impact of switching to biosimilar infliximab and etanercept in British Columbia.

This study aims to understand the impact of the mandatory biosimilar switching policy on costs of prescription drugs. The findings suggest that the policy had a large impact on drug cost savings. Future work will explore if other cost categories were impacted.

Research Team: McClean AR, Law MR, Bansback N, Cheng L, Clement F, Tadrous M, Harrison M. 

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The Impact of Comorbidities on the Simple Disease Activity Index (SDAI) and its Components Over the First Year of Follow-up – An Analysis from the Canadian Early Arthritis Cohort (CATCH).

In this observational study of Canadian patients with early rheumatoid arthritis, having multiple other chronic conditions in addition to rheumatoid arthritis was associated with having more active arthritis, including a greater number of swollen joints, greater overall disease activity,  and less improvement from treatment. The results show that having other chronic diseases at the time of getting rheumatoid arthritis has a negative impact on RA and its evolution.

Research Team: Chen LR, Schier O, Valois MF, Pope J, Bartlett S, Boire g, Hazlewood g, Hitchon C, Keystone E, Tin D, Thorne C, Singbo N, Bykerk V, Bessette L, CATCH Canadian Early Arthritis Cohort (CATCH) Investigators.

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Help-seeking behaviors and treatment preferences for sleep problems among persons with inflammatory arthritis. 

Sleep disturbances, including difficulty initiating sleep, maintaining sleep, and/or early morning awakenings are common in persons with inflammatory arthritis and have been shown to contribute to worsening of symptoms including fatigue, pain, and health related quality of life. To guide the tailoring of an internet delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for persons with arthritis experiencing insomnia, an on-line needs assessment was conducted identifying help-seeking behaviors, insomnia management strategies and treatment preferences. The survey confirmed that people with insomnia are not getting the help they need and that people would be willing to use an internet program to improve sleep.

Research Team: McGuire D, Lacaille D, Savard S, Fortin P, Rahme E, Da Costa D.

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Do Risk-Taking Behaviours Predict COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance in People With Rheumatic Disease?

People with rheumatic disease who are hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine are less likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours. Future research could focus on whether promotion of vaccine safety might increase vaccine uptake in this group.

Research Team: Valerio V, Rampakakis E, McDonald E, Bernatsky S, Hazel E, Colmegna I.

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Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists in patients with obesity and rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis: A scoping review. 

Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists are a new class of medications with established benefit for diabetes and for weight loss. Our review highlights additional promising anti-inflammatory effects potentially independent of weight loss. The effect of this class of medications on disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis warrants further study.

Research Team: Karacabeyli D, Lacaille D.

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Multimorbidity Patterns and Associations with Disability Differ in Men and Women in the First Year following RA diagnosis: Results from the Canadian Early Arthritis Cohort (CATCH). 

Results from this large real-world incident cohort study suggest that people often have multiple other chronic conditions at the time of their RA diagnosis and the diseases they have differ between men and women. Results suggest potential shared risk factors and shared pathways between these disease and RA, and highlight the need to screen for and treat those other chronic conditions, particularly those which increase disability.

Research Team: Schieir S, Bartlett S, Valois MF, Hazlewood G, Bessette L, Hitchon C,  Edward Keystone Pope J, Tin D, Thorne C, Bykerk V, CATCH Canadian Early Arthritis Cohort (CATCH) Investigators.

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Predictors of health-related quality of life in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

This study evaluated the relative contribution of sociodemographic, rheumatoid arthritis-related, comorbidities, and lifestyle factors in predicting the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of rheumatoid arthritis patients. Comorbidities (depression) contributed the most to predicting HRQoL, while lifestyle and sociodemographic factors contributed very little. HRQoL of the previous year contributed most to predicting future HRQoL.

Research Team: Hassen N, Zheng Y, Xie H, Khan K, Kopec J, Lacaille D.

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Increased risk of severe infections and mortality in patients with newly diagnosed anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody–associated vasculitis: A population-based study.

We conducted a study of all patients with newly diagnosed anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody–associated vasculitis (AAV) in British Columbia and found AAV is associated with s 3.8 fold increase in risk of infection and infection related mortality and a 3.2 fold greater total number of infections.

Research Team: Zhao K, Xie H, Esdaile J, Avina-Zubieta JA. 

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Beliefs and concerns about rheumatoid arthritis medications may predict influenza vaccine hesitancy: Results from the Canadian Early Arthritis Cohort (CATCH).

Using data from the Canadian Early Arthritis Cohort we found that flu vaccination rate is suboptimal in patients newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with 37% being vaccinated prior to diagnosis and 42% after diagnosis. People more likely to receive a flu shot included men, white racial background, not smoking, having higher beliefs about the importance of RA medications versus concerns about taking them, advanced therapeutics, and having a previous flu shot. Our work suggests that it is important to have conversations with new patients about their vaccination history and medication attitudes.

Research Team: Ta V, Schieir O, Valois MF, Colmegna I, Hitchon C, Bessette L, Hazlewood G, Thorne C, Pope J, Boire G, Tin D, Keystone E, Bykerk V, Bartlett S, and Canadian Early Arthritis Cohort (CATCH) Investigators.

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The relationship between disease activity measures and work productivity and activity impairment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in the Rheum4U Precision Health Registry patient cohort.

People with rheumatoid arthritis who have more active inflammation have lower productivity at work and more impairment of their activities at home. Also people who were employed experienced more limitations at home than at work. The impact on work was driven by reduced productivity while at work more than by needing to take time off work.

Research Team: Marshall DA, Sandhu N, Benseler S, Twilt M, Guigue A, Gjata I, Stevenson M, Mosher D.

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Responsiveness of the CDAI When Scored with Patient-Reported vs. Clinician Assessed Joint Counts: Results from the Canadian Early Arthritis Cohort (CATCH) Study.

Results from this large observational study of people with rheumatoid arthritis suggest that disease activity measured using either a joint count derived from a rheumatologist joint exam or from a patient self-exam can pick up changes over time. This provides further evidence that patient reported assessment of disease activity can provide useful information about changes in patient disease control that can help inform treatment decision-making in virtual care.

Research Team: Bykerk V, Schieir O, Valois MF, Hazlewood G, Hitchon C, Boire G, Tin D, Bessette L, Keystone E, Carter T, Pope J, Bartlett S. CATCH Canadian Early Arthritis Cohort (CATCH) Investigators.

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Acceptability and Usability of the JIA Option Map, a Web-Based Patient Decision Aid for Pain Management in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.

The JIA Option Map has good acceptability and usability, showing its potential to improve decision-making for pain management options among young people with Juvenile Inflammatory Arthritis. The next step will test the effectiveness of the app over time.

Research Team: Toupin-April K, Proulx L, Huber AM, Duffy CM, Couchman D, Morgan EM, Cohen JS, Gaboury I, Li LC, Trehan N, Sirois A, Sirotich E, Abrahams N, Houston A, Kashif I, Vij N, Stringer E, Cavallo S, Brinkman W, Connelly MA, Weiss JE, Gmuca S, Décary S, Tugwell P, Stinson J.

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February 4

Improvement in Overall Survival, Skin Fibrosis and Lung Function with Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Systemic Sclerosis.

Systemic sclerosis is rare but potentially very severe disease where scarring occurs in the skin and various vital organs. This study provides crucial real-world evidence about good long-term clinical outcomes supporting the use of stem cell transplantation in patients with severe systemic sclerosis.

Research Team: Maltez N, Wang M, Wells G, Tugwell P, Baron M, Marjnovic Z, Lansiaux P, Farge D, Hudson M.

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Results from the 2020 Canadian Rheumatology Association’s Workforce and Wellness Survey.

The Canadian Rheumatology Association surveyed rheumatologists across Canada to learn about the workforce. Two important findings were: 1) there is a shortage of rheumatologists in Canada; and 2) rheumatologists are facing burnout.

Research Team: Kulhawy-Wibe S, Widdifield J, Lee J, Thorne C, Yacyshyn E, Batthish M, Jerome D, Shupak R, Jilkine K, Purvis J, Shamis J, Roberts J, Kur J, Burt J, Johnson N, Barnabe C, Spencer N, Harrison M, Pope J, Barber CEH.

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Riding multiple waves of uncertainty: The impact of COVID-19 on RA patients in the Canadian Early Arthritis Cohort (CATCH).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians with rheumatoid arthritis faced considerable uncertainty due to greater risk of infection, hospitalization, changing access to RA medications, and very limited access to in-person RA care due to pandemic-related restrictions. We examined trends in perceived stress, physical, emotional, and social health, self-assessed disease activity and RA flares prior to and during the first two waves of COVID-19 (April – June 2020 and Oct – Jan 2021) in adults with RA. As compared to 6 months pre-pandemic, the first two waves of COVID were associated with increased stress, worsening physical, emotional, and social health, higher disease activity and more frequent flares. More than 1 in 3 experienced moderate-severe pain and disability; 1 in 4 had moderate-severe anxiety, depression and fatigue; and 1 in 5 had moderate-severe sleep disturbance and reduced participation. 

Research Team: Bartlett S, Schieir O, Valois MF, Pope J, Hazlewood G, Bessette L, Boire G, Tin D, Thorne C, Keystone E, Hitchon C, Bykerk V, CATCH Investigators.

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Characteristics and Evolution of Patients with Difficult-to-Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Despite advances in treatments available for rheumatoid arthritis, including biologic agents, some people continue to have active inflammation despite receiving multiple biologic agents with at least two different mechanisms of action. Deciding how to treat these patients and figuring out to what extent persistent pain is due to inflammation vs. other causes of pain is challenging but important for guiding treatment decisions.

Research Team: Qi W, Robert A, Singbo N, Ratelle L, Bessette L, Brown J, Michou L.

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Investigating the Determinants of Accessing Social and News Media and Experiencing Negative Impacts during COVID-19 in an International SLE Sample.

This international study of patients with lupus identified that the likelihood of going to social and news media as a source of  health information during the COVID-19 pandemic and the likelihood of reporting negative impacts from accessing health information through these sources varied according to where people live, their age,  gender, and education, as well as the ease with which they could access family physicians. This study emphasizes the need for targeted health messaging based on demographics and geography.

Research Team: Cardwell F, Elliott S, Chin R, Rowbottom L, St. Pierre Y, Choi M, Urowitz M, Ruiz-Irastorza G, Bernatsky S. Petri M, Peschken C, Ramsey-Goldman R, Fortin P, Bae SC, Mak A, Hanly J, Askanase A, Romero-Diaz J, Pons-Estel B, Bruce I, Wallace D, Clarke A. 

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Health Information Use by SLE Patients Pre and During COVID-19.

Although lupus specialists and family physicians were ranked as the most preferred sources of health information during the COVID-19 pandemic, patients accessed these sources less frequently during the pandemic and accessed news media, a less trusted source, more frequently. To increase accessibility to preferred and trusted sources, virtual visits should be promoted where not already in place. This research will improve the pathways valued by patients for disseminating health information.

Research Team: Cardwell F, Elliott S, Choi M, Chin R, St Pierre Y, Rowbottom L, St., Urowitz M, Ruiz-Irastorza G, Bernatsky S. Petri M, Manzi S, Peschken C, Ramsey-Goldman R, Fortin P, Bae SC, Mak A, Hanly J, Askanase A, Romero-Diaz J, Pons-Estel B, Bruce I, Wallace D, Clarke A.

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Key factors for the development and implementation of a patient dashboard in rheumatology: Review of literature.

This study reviewed the literature on patient dashboards, which are e-health tools designed to provide to physicians feedback about how their patients are treated for the purpose of quality improvement. The review found that several key factors can increase the likelihood of successful implementation of a patient dashboard including a user-centered approach to co-design, simple graphics with descriptions of the measures, a broad range of holistic measures, and the application of motivational strategies.

Research Team: Pirhalova T, Sandhu N, Benseler SM, Marshall DA, Gjata I, Twilt M, Stevenson M, Olaosebikan O, Mosher D on behalf of the Rheum4U Team.

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Prevalence and titre distribution of antinuclear antibodies in juvenile idiopathic arthritis – A systematic review.

We reviewed the scientific literature on ANA testing for patients with JIA, including those that went on to develop uveitis.

Research Team: Storwick J, Brett A, Buhler K, Chin A, Schmelling H, Johnson N, Choi M, Fritzler M. 

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Evaluating frailty in rheumatoid arthritis: A scoping review.

Frailty is an emerging concept that can help us understand why certain individuals living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) experience worse health outcomes than others. We found that many different measures and tools have been used to assess frailty in patients with RA, yielding a wide range of estimates for its prevalence. Studies consistently show that frailty is more common among RA patients when compared to individuals without RA, suggesting that frailty is a relevant concept in RA that warrants further study.

Research Team: Legge A, Lacaille D.

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Assessing a nursing inter-professional model of care in rheumatology.

We assessed whether a collaborative inter-professional model of care in which nurses provide intake for inflammatory arthritis patients improves access to rheumatologist care while providing a high standard of care. We found that this model of care allows greater access to care in underserviced areas while maintaining high quality care, thus improving efficiency of service delivery in areas with few rheumatologists, and reducing inequities in access to arthritis care. However we found that patients still often wait too long for consults.

Research Team: Kelsall A, Teo M, Lacaille D.

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Impact of Early antimalarial adherence on future acute care utilization in patients with newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus: A population-based study.

We examine the association between antimalarial (AM) adherence and acute care utilization among newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. RA and SLE patients adhering to AM therapy are found to be associated with a lower risk of future acute care utilization (13% reduction in the risk of hospital admission and 22% reduction in the number of hospitalized days) than non-adherent patients. 

Research Team: Hoque MR, Avina-Zubieta JA, De Vera MA, Qian Y, Esdaile JM, Xie H

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SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence, seroconversion and neutralizing antibodies in a systemic lupus erythematosus cohort and comparison to controls.

In a group of lupus patients, we found that lupus patients did not appear to be at higher risk of developing COVID-19 compared to the general population.

Research Team: Buhler KA, Mathew H, Choi M, Gukova K, Cardwell F, Waldhauser H, Clarke A, Fritzler M.

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Hospitalizations for COVID in Canadian SLE Patients Followed in Clinical Cohorts in the Pre-vaccination Period.

This study found that of the 1,375 patients with lupus followed in specialized lupus clinics in Canada, none were hospitalized for COVID-19 during the period of march 2020 to April 01 2021, which covers the first and second wave of the pandemic when vaccines were not yet available to lupus patients unless they were elderly or health care workers.

Research Team: Liu JL, Pineau C, Hanly J, Clarke A, Peschken C, Fortin P, Vinet E, Hitchon C, Bernatsky S.

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Economic evaluation of hydroxychloroquine use in an international SLE inception cohort.

Lupus (SLE) patients reported higher annual health related costs when not taking hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) vs taking the drug. This could be due to HCQ helping to reduce long term damage from SLE patients. In addition to its well-established efficacy at improving clinical outcomes of SLE, there may be an economic benefit for HCQ use in SLE patients.

Research Team: Barber MRW, St Pierre Y, Hanly JG, Urowitz M, Gordon C, Bae SC, Romero-Diaz J, Sanchez-Guerrero J, Bernatsky S, Wallace DJ, Isenberg DA, Rahman A, Merrill J, Fortin PR, Gladman D, Bruce I, Petri MM, Ginzler EM, Dooley MA, Ramsey-Goldman R, Manzi S, Jönsen A, Alarcón GS, Van Vollenhoven R, Aranow C, Mackay MM, Ruiz-Irastorza G, Lim SS, Inanc M, Kalunian K, Jacobsen s, Peschken CA, Kamen D, Askanase A, Clarke AE

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Can a questionnaire reliably identify improvement and worsening in the RA disease activity? Implications for use of RA-FQ for telehealth.

The Rheumatoid Arthritis Flare Questionnaire (RA-FQ), a brief patient-reported measure that asks about pain, function, fatigue, stiffness and participation, can be used to identify disease flares in RA. We evaluated how well the RA-FQ performed in 808 adults with RA, and found it could detect even small changes in disease activity and distinguish between patients with minimal and meaningful improvement and worsening of their RA. Results suggest the RA-FQ may be particularly useful for assessing disease activity when in person visits are not feasible. 

Research Team: Bartlett S, Bykerk V, Schieir O, Valois MF, Bessette L, Boire G, Hazlewood G, Hitchon C, Keystone E, Pope J, Tin D, Thorne C, Bingham C, CATCH Investigators.

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Accessing care for rheumatoid arthritis: A critical interpretive synthesis.

We examined what the scholarly literature on the experiences of people living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) tells us about the challenges they experience in accessing care from diagnosis through disease management. We were especially interested in understanding the role of the primary care physician (GP or family doctor) in their access journey. We conclude that in order to improve access to RA care, changes are needed at many levels (individual, patient-physician interaction, health system organization, broader community). To optimize the care of people living with RA, family doctors need to be knowledgeable about the disease, but also value the experiential knowledge gained from living with RA.

Research Team: Koehn S, Pham A, Barber C, Lindeman C, Drummon N, Jones A.

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Development of a new ‘Resource of Resources’ to support physical activity in people living with chronic conditions.

‘Active For Health’ is an Arthritis Research Canada supported and Physical Therapy Knowledge Broker led project involving more than 150 clinicians, researchers, students and persons living with chronic health conditions. The online toolkit provides high quality, vetted resources to help people living with arthritis and other chronic conditions to be more physically active. More information here: https://www. ‌healthlinkbc.ca/healthy-eating-physical-activity/active-for-health

Research Team: Westby M, Hoens AM

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Upper extremity function scale: Better ways to measure perceived function and self-care in RA in the era of virtual medicine.

Self-assessment tools that can reliably and precisely quantify hand/wrist function are needed to assess inflammatory activity when a physical exam is not feasible. In a study of 262 participants with RA, we compared NEURO-QOL Upper Extremity Function scores with widely used measures of disability, RA symptoms, and disease activity indicators. Our results offer initial evidence supporting use of Neuro-QOL to self-assess inflammatory activity in the hands and day to day experiences of living with RA.

Research Team: Bartlett S, Schieir O, Valois MF, Pope J, Boire G, Keystone E, Tin D, Thorne C, Hitchon C, Bessette L, Hazlewood G, Bykerk V, CATCH Investigators. Neuro-QOL 

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Experiences using wearable technology by persons with rheumatoid arthritis participating in a physical activity counselling intervention study: A relational ethics analysis.

Little is known about the ethical issues (positives or negatives) that people with arthritis may experience when using a physical activity wearable to support self-management in everyday life. By advancing understanding of ethical issues experienced, this study contributes important insights that can help to develop physical activity programs involving a wearable.

Research Team: Leese J, Zhu S, Townsend AF, Backman CL, Nimmon L, Li LC.

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Anti-MPP1 autoantibodies are associated with peripheral neuropathy in systemic lupus erythematosus.

In this lupus study, we found that a blood marker called anti-MPP1 antibody could be important for identifying people with peripheral nervous system symptoms of lupus.

Research Team: Krustev E, Buhler KA, Cardwell F, Fritzler M, Clarke A, Choi M

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The Canadian Research Group of Rheumatology in Immuno-Oncology (CanRIO): A nationwide multi-center prospective cohort.

The initial sample of 103 patients from the CanRIO prospective national cohort of people with rheumatic diseases treated with cancer immunotherapy, suggested that most patients presented with joint manifestations as toxicities to cancer immunotherapies and most of them were treated with prednisone. Patients with pre-existing autoimmune disease had similar demographic characteristics and tumor representation than those without pre-existing autoimmune disease but were more likely to have tumor progression while receiving their cancer immunotherapy.

Research Team: Gonzalez Arreola L, Tan J, Ye C, Roberts J, Fifi-Mah A, Hudson M, Hoa S, Pope J, Maltez NN, Appleton T, Choi M, Colmegna I, Dutz J, Ennis D, Himmel M, Rottapel R, Saltman A, Tisseverasinghe A, Jamal S

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