RA and Primary Care: 8 Looks to the Future

Primary care physicians (PCPs) will likely play a critical future role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patient care, say Kevin D. Deane, MD, PhD and Sarah Dill, MD, University of Colorado Denver and Denver Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center, in their Patient Care Special Report on Rheumatoid Arthritis in Primary Care.By providing early diagnosis and referral of patients with RA and working with rheumatologists in comanaging established disease, PCPs will contribute significantly to serving an increasingly underserved patient population.With the arrival of Arthritis Awareness Month, the slides above offer a recap of Drs Deane and Dill’s report on the current and future state of RA patient care and what PCPs will need to know to do their part. Links to the original report by way of key concepts, below:Combination of early diagnosis and appropriate therapyhttp://www.patientcareonline.com/special-report/rheumatoid-arthritis-primary-carePCPs can contributehttp://www.patientcareonline.com/special-report/rheumatoid-arthritis-primary-careClassification criteriahttp://www.patientcareonline.com/special-report/early-diagnosis-rheumatoid-arthritis-primary-careDiagnostic history and examinationhttp://www.patientcareonline.com/special-report/early-diagnosis-rheumatoid-arthritis-primary-careImaginghttp://www.patientcareonline.com/special-report/early-diagnosis-rheumatoid-arthritis-primary-careExplosion of RA therapieshttp://www.patientcareonline.com/special-report/changing-ra-referral-paradigmRA disease assessmenthttp://www.patientcareonline.com/special-report/ra-comanagement-and-futureRA preventionhttp://www.patientcareonline.com/special-report/ra-comanagement-and-future