Care III Conference advances arthritis care

Access to appropriate and timely care can be a challenge for people living with arthritis, especially because of the shortage of health care resources and qualified health professionals. The problem is made worse by disparities in knowledge exchange among researchers, clinicians, policy makers, and consumers. This is just a sampling of the issues targeted by the CARE III Conference held in May 2005 in Toronto.

To improve disease management for people with arthritis – This was the overarching aim of the CARE Conference. 77 delegates representing 9 North American and European countries were invited to participate. The consumers voice was central to this meeting. CAPA was represented by Anne Dooley, Jacqueline Lukas, Colleen Murray, Ann Qualman, and Marcel Ruest. Jennifer Boyle (Arthritis Community Research and Evaluation Unit), Anne Fouillard (Canadian Arthritis Network (CAN) Consumer Advisory Council), Cheryl Koehn (Arthritis Consumer Experts (ACE), Sandy Lockwood (CAN; ACE), Anne Lyddiatt (Patient Partner Program), Amye Leong (USA), and Enid Quest (England) were also among the invitees.

CARE III started with an inspirational keynote speech by Amye Leong about the power of creating synergy and collaboration among players in arthritis care. The discussion then focused on three areas: existing and innovative models of care, research design, and outcome measures. Consumers presented their views in each of these areas. For example, Ann Qualman spoke passionately about the need to include complementary and alternative medicine in arthritis care, and Anne Dooley participated in a lively debate arguing for consumers playing an active role in care research. Anne Fouillard gave a thought provoking talk about the importance of the patient’s perspective in research design and outcome measure. Last but not least, Cheryl Koehn’s presentation challenged all of us to think broadly about strategies for “sharing stuff” (i.e., knowledge translation and exchange). She pointed out the importance of tackling barriers around language, cultural differences and literacy.

We also had an opportunity to share experience around innovative models of care. Dr. Mary Bell spoke about the successful experience from the Getting a Grip on Arthritis Project, which aims at building capacity among primary care providers in arthritis management. The use of information technology (e.g., a touch-pad computer) for tracking disease indicators and outcomes of patients at rheumatology clinics was presented by Dr. Claire Bombardier and Dr. John Verhoef (The Netherlands). As well, Dr. Sarah Hewlett spoke about an innovative process for individuals, who had been self-managing, to contact a central triage system if they needed further medical review (i.e., patient-initiated care).

On the last day of the conference participants assigned themselves to groups to identify priority areas for research and ways to facilitate knowledge translation and exchange. Summaries of the discussion and priority areas will be submitted to the Journal of Rheumatology in the fall, 2005.

There was a general agreement that CARE should evolve from an annual conference to an action-oriented group. It is encouraging that some new international collaborations have begun since CARE III. Leeds, England will be the host of CARE IV in 2006 and we look forward to this opportunity to report on the activities, to share new knowledge and to foster new actions in care.