Alex from Calgary asks: If someone had $100K to invest in the most ambitious treatment for arthritis, where would you suggest they put it? If someone had a free 5 years of time to commit to research on a current approach in therapy, what direction would you suggest?
It’s an interesting question. It is an amazing time in arthritis research. The number of new treatment options that have become available over the last 10 years is enormous. This will only continue. Where we struggle is not necessarily with the treatments themselves, but how to best deploy them. Our model of care needs to be modernized. Standard of care should include not just a rheumatologist/physician, but an entire arthritis care team. Each person should be followed in a systematic data driven way to inform best treatment choices and then learn from that for future patients. This can inform us how to personalize the use of our treatment options, leading to better outcomes with safer treatment being offered not just for arthritis, but for a person as a whole. Arthritis centres, like those in Edmonton and Calgary, are at the forefront of this work but much support is needed to make it a true reality.
Posted: October 2, 2021
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