Research Completed

Measuring Different Care Approaches for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Scientific Study Title:

Testing of System-Level Performance Measures for Inflammatory Arthritis

Start Date:

2015

End Date:

2022

Research Category

Arthritis Care

Why do this research?

Reason For Research

Over one million Canadians have inflammatory arthritis (IA). There are a few types of IA, but the most common type in adults is rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Early access to the right treatment for patients with RA can improve their outcomes, reducing their symptoms and improving their quality of life. However, in many regions of Canada, it is challenging to provide high-quality care in a timely way because there are too few rheumatologists. In response to this, the Arthritis Alliance of Canada (AAC), an organization of over 36 Canadian arthritis groups, developed ‘Models of Care for Inflammatory Arthritis’. The Models of Care highlight best practices for early diagnosis and treatment using a set of quality measures. We did this research study with the AAC to see how well different healthcare models for patients with RA were doing in meeting four key quality measures.

Methodology

Execution of Research

We evaluated how well RA care is managed across five Canadian clinical sites in Newfoundland, Ontario, and Alberta, including two sites serving Indigenous populations. We looked at four quality measures:
1) how long patients waited to see a rheumatologist,
2) how many patients had yearly follow-up appointments,
3) how many patients were taking medications known to slow down the disease (called disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs or DMARDs), and
4) how quickly patients started on DMARD therapy after being diagnosed.

Findings & Next Steps

We had some challenges in figuring out how well different care models were doing because not all of them kept track of their data in the same way, or for long enough. For example, not all models had complete records about how long patients waited to see a rheumatologist. The waiting time was very different among the sites, from 21 to 75 days. Only two sites could tell us how many of their patients came back for yearly check-ups. Those rates were between 83% and 100%. When it came to patients taking DMARDs and how quickly they started taking them after diagnosis, only three sites provided enough information to evaluate. This data showed 90% to 100% of patients on DMARDs and median time to start these drugs was zero days.

This study consists of 4 sub-projects dedicated to achieving our overall goals. Click below for more information about each sub-project:

Related Publications

Barber CEH, Thorne JC, Ahluwalia V, Burt J, Lacaille D, Marshall DA, Hazlewood GS, Mosher D, Denning L, Szamko I, Chin R, Hamilton S, Benseler S, Twilt M, Shiff NJ, Bykerk V, Homik J, Barnabe C. (2018). Feasibility of Measurement and Adherence to System Performance Measures for Rheumatoid Arthritis in 5 Models of Care. The Journal of rheumatology, 45(11), 1501–1508. https://doi.org/10.3899/jrheum.171284

Related Research

Intervention virtuelle pour les fractures vertébrales (VIVA) : un programme de réadaptation pour un meilleur rétablissement après une fracture vertébrale

Améliorer la qualité des soins pour la polyarthrite rhumatoïde

Connecting Voices for Equitable Rheumatoid Arthritis Care Access

A New Model of At-Home Follow-Up Care for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Using Artificial Intelligence to Streamline Research on Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatments

Evaluating a Decision Aid for Tapering Biologic Medications in Rheumatoid Arthritis

2026 STUDIES TO WATCH

OUR RESEARCH

OUR TEAM

RESEARCH CONFERENCES

ARTHRITIS PATIENT ADVISORY BOARD

VOLUNTEER

PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH

SHARE YOUR STORY