Understanding the Care of People with Rheumatoid Arthritis in Canadian Primary Care Settings

Start and end date:

January 1, 2021 – December 31, 2023

Why do this research?

Family physicians play a key role in the management of rheumatoid arthritis and are often the patient’s first contact with the healthcare system. The management of rheumatoid arthritis by family physicians across the provinces in Canada is not known.

This research will have two results. The short-term one will be a national description of healthcare provided by physicians. The long-term one will be the identification of any gaps in primary care in order to provide direction to address these gaps.

What will be done?

We will use data from a Canadian national surveillance network that collects information from family physicians in communities to determine the number of people who see family physicians for rheumatoid arthritis and the type of treatment they receive both before and after diagnosis. We will interview people with rheumatoid arthritis to understand their views on managing their condition and navigating the healthcare system. We will interview family physicians and rheumatologists to learn about their experiences diagnosing and supporting patients with this type of arthritis.

How do people get involved?

Your participation in this study is voluntary and there are no foreseeable risks that are associated with this study. You will be asked to fill out a consent form before participating.

Your participation will involve one quick phone call to ensure eligibility, explain the study and send you a study description and consent form. We will then meet by Zoom to go over the consent form and answer your questions about the study. In a second Zoom meeting, we will conduct an interview that will last about 60-90 minutes, so you don’t need to leave your house.

• Never Zoomed before? Not to worry, we’ll walk you through it!
• Camera-shy? – You’re welcome to keep your camera off
• Don’t have enough data to Zoom? – Don’t worry, we can help with that!
• Need to break the interview up into shorter periods of time? – no problem!

You may be eligible if you:

• Have recently identified that you are living with rheumatoid arthritis
• If you speak, read and write English or French
• You live in Canada

Who is on the research team?

Principal Investigators:

Allyson Jones, MScPT, PhD

Neil Drummond, Professor, University of Alberta

Co-investigators:

Claire Barber, MD, PhD, FRCPC

Cheryl Barnabe, MD, MSc, FRCPC

Scott Garrison, Associate Professor, University of Alberta

Doug Klein, Professor, University of Alberta

Cliff Lindeman, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta

Jessica Widdifield, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto

Tyler Williamson, Associate Professor, University of Calgary