Dr. Mary De Vera
ARC Research Scientist

Dr. Mary De Vera (Assistant Professor, UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences) was recently awarded a grant from the 2014 Canadian Initiatives for Outcomes in Rheumatology Care (CIORA) grant competition for a project entitled INflammatory arthritis patients’ perspectives, priorities, and opinions on interventions FOR MEDication adherence (INFORMED). Previous research aimed at helping patients take their medication as prescribed (called “adherence”) has consistently failed to seek the patient perspective to inform the study design, which may be the reason that current strategies have failed. Thus, Dr. De Vera and her team will use focus groups to gain a better understanding of patients’ perspectives on taking their medication, which will hopefully lead to effective strategies targeting this problem in the future.

The idea for this particular research study was conceived at a monthly meeting of ARC’s Arthritis Patient Advisory Board (APAB). From there, APAB provided feedback and input into all stages of grant development, and will continue to provide their unique perspective as the study progresses. Notably, one of their members (Ms. Sharan Rai, M.Sc. Candidate) will serve as a Co-Investigator on the project.

This is just one of the many ways in which APAB has contributed to research conducted at ARC.

Congratulations, Dr. De Vera and APAB members.