Donate Now
  • What We're Working On
Making it Work: Helping People with Inflammatory Forms of Arthritis at Work (Phase III)
fingers-hands-keyboard-1375261-scaled
Scientific Study Title:
PHASE III: Randomized Controlled Trial evaluating the effectiveness of a web-based program, Making-it-Work TM at improving at-work productivity and preventing work disability in employed people with inflammatory forms of arthritis.
Research Category
Tags

Why do this research?

This research is the 3rd Phase in our evaluation of Making it Work TM program. In this phase, we are conducting a randomized controlled trial of our eLearning program—a novel intervention to help people with inflammatory arthritis maintain employment. This unique program, called Making it Work TM , was created to improve an aspect of disease management that is too often ignored by health care professionals – the management of employment issues. It fills a gap of utmost importance in the health care services available for people with arthritis, and has a great potential for improving quality of life and reducing the cost of arthritis.

We had previously tested a face-to-face version of the program (Phase 1 (https://arthritisresearch.ca/research/making-it-work-phase-i/)). We have since converted our program into a web-based program so that its benefits can be offered to a larger number of people, especially those people living in areas with few services (Phase II (https://arthritisresearch.ca/research/making-it-work-phase-ii/)). Furthermore, the video group meetings are at the leading edge of trends in the field of adult education and self-management.

This research is one of few initiatives worldwide to develop and test the effectiveness of interventions specifically targeted at employment. In this age of evidence-based health care delivery, the highest level of evidence, provided by a randomized controlled trial (RCT), is needed for our research to translate into a new service offered to people with arthritis.

The Research Team

Principal Investigator

  • Diane Lacaille, MDCM, MHSc, FRCPC, Scientific Director, Arthritis Research Canada (University of British Columbia)

Co-Investigators

  • Catherine Backman, PhD, FCAOT, Senior Scientist, Rehabilitation, Arthritis Research Canada (University of British Columbia)
  • John Esdaile, MD, MPH, FRCPC, FCAHS, MACR, Scientific Director Emeritus, Arthritis Research Canada (University of British Columbia)
  • Monique Gignac – PhD. Research Scientist, University Health Network, University of Toronto; Associate Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, (University of Toronto)
  • Linda Li, BSc(PT), MSc, PhD, FCAHS, Senior Scientist, Implementation Science, Arthritis Research Canada (University of British Columbia)

Research Staff

  • Pam Rogers, MA, Research Coordinator, Arthritis Research Canada
  • Alex Kwok, MSc, Former Research Assistant, Arthritis Research Canada.

Collaborators

  • Arthritis Consumer Experts – Cheryl Koehn; Arthritis Patient Advisory Board – Pam Montie, Otto Kamensek.

Media and Infographics

Related Research

What We're Working On Right Now

Exploring a New Immune Cell Therapy for People with Autoimmune Diseases

Systemic sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus are serious autoimmune diseases that can cause damage to many organs including the skin, lungs and kidneys. In this project, we will study a new type of treatment that may better control these diseases by targeting the immune cells that cause them. If successful, it could reduce inflammation, slow or stop disease progression, and may even help reset the immune system, so that some patients no longer need long-term immune-suppressing medications.
Read More

Understanding how scleroderma affects people over time

People living with scleroderma experience challenges such as pain, disability, and mental health concerns, but we still don’t know much about how these problems change over time or why some people do better than others. For this research project, our goal is to improve our understanding of how scleroderma affects people’s daily lives and identify factors that may predict changes in their health.
Read More

How can we help Canadians age at home to improve health outcomes and support a sustainable healthcare system?

As Canada’s population ages, home care is important for helping older adults remain safely within their homes. Our research team is linking data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging with health records in British Columbia, Ontario, and New Brunswick, to track patterns of paid and unpaid home care use over time.
Read More