Over 70% of patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) in England have received higher quality treatment services allowing them to attain low-disease activity. Commissioning for Quality in Rheumatoid Arthritis (CQRA) announce that this improvement in care was possible thanks to the implementation of commissioning metrics. It was found at the British Society of Rheumatology Conference that when CQRA metrics are used there is an improvement in arthritic disease control.
The CQRA metrics were found to improve four of the six categories experienced by RA patients. Dr Marwan Burkhari, lead investigator of the study commented that the “...CQRA tool helps to ensure a consistent approach to RA care and treatment for all patients across England and help to go some way to ensuring that all those patients that can reach remission do.”
The study results were gathered from four English hospitals in conjunction with recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. If the CQRA tools were implemented across the UK the 580,000 adults suffering from RA would be able to receive higher quality care and access to the appropriate treatments. This would, in turn, have the greatest impact upon the patients’ condition and increasing the number of patients who go into remission.
For more information on Rheumatoid Arthritis, its symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, totalhealth have an excellent plain English article by an expert in Rheumatology, Dr Pamela Mangat from the Royal Free Hospital in London.
