Impact of patient-accessible electronic medical records in rheumatology: use, satisfaction and effects on empowerment among patients.

BACKGROUND: To measure the use, satisfaction and impact of a web portal which provides patients with rheumatoid arthritis home access to their electronic medical records (EMR). METHODS: A pretest-posttest study was conducted among 360 patients. Questionnaires assessed socio-demographics, health literacy, Internet use, disease characteristics, patient-provider relationship and empowerment before and after launching a hospital-based patient web portal. To measure the impact of the portal, patients' satisfaction with care, trust in their rheumatologist, self-efficacy in patient-provider communication, illness perceptions, and medication adherence were assessed. The post-test included questions on portal use, satisfaction, and self-perceived impact due to portal use. RESULTS: 54% of respondents with Internet access had viewed their EMR. Respondents were positive about the ease of use and usefulness of the portal and reported very few problems. Age (P = .03), amount of Internet use (P = .01) and self-perceived Internet skills (P = .03) significantly predicted portal use. Of the respondents who had logged in, 44% reported feeling more involved in their treatment and 37% felt they had more knowledge about their treatment. Significant differences over time were not found on the empowerment-related instruments. CONCLUSIONS: The current portal succeeded in offering patients access to their EMR in a usable and understandable way. While its true impact is difficult to grasp, a relevant portion of the patients felt more involved in their treatment due to the web portal. Offering patients home EMR access, therefore, appears to be a valuable addition to the care process.

Prognostic factors for sustained work participation in early osteoarthritis: a follow-up study in the Cohort Hip and Cohort Knee (CHECK).

OBJECTIVE: To identify prognostic factors for the 2-year course of work participation in early osteoarthritis (OA) of hips or knees. METHODS: In this prospective cohort study, questionnaire data from 925 subjects was analyzed. Rate ratios were calculated to compare work participation with the general Dutch population, corrected for age, sex and education. The overall participation rate at T(2) was compared to baseline. Personal factors, self-reported health status (Western Ontario McMasters Arthritis Index-WOMAC), medical consumption and physical work demands were compared between subjects with sustained work participation and subject who stopped working; factors that differed significantly were included in a logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Work participation in the cohort (mean age 58, 79 % females) decreased from 51 to 46 %, a similar rate to the general population. Subjects who continued working were younger than those who stopped working (mean 4.2 years) and they had less frequently reported sick-leave at baseline; the regression model included both factors. 11 % Of the workers reported sick-leave in the past year because of hip/knee complaints (similar to baseline). 20 % Reported work adaptations, compared to 14 % at baseline. CONCLUSION: The 2-year course of work participation of people with early OA was similar to the general Dutch population. Sustained work participation was predicted by lower age, not by OA related factors.

Associations of CTX-II with biochemical markers of bone turnover raise questions on its tissue origin: data from CHECK, a cohort study of early osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE: CTX-II (C-terminal telopeptide of type II collagen) has been put forward as a marker of collagen type II degradation being part of osteoarthritis. In this study, the authors describe similarities between CTX-II and bone markers arguing against CTX-II as a marker of (solely) cartilage degradation. METHODS: uCTX-II, the bone markers uCTX-I, uNTX-I, sPINP, and sOC (C-terminal and N-terminal telopeptides of collagen I, aminoterminal propeptide of type I procollagen, and osteocalcin, respectively), and other (candidate) cartilage markers sCOMP, sCS846, and sPIIANP (cartilage oligomeric matrix protein, chondroitin sulphate 846 and type IIA collagen N-propeptide, respectively) were assessed by ELISA in CHECK (Cohort Hip and Cohort Knee), a cohort of 1002 individuals with early pain and/or stiffness in knee and/or hip. RESULTS: uCTX-II was more strongly associated with the bone markers than with the other cartilage markers, while the other cartilage markers were not so strongly associated with the bone markers. Moreover, both uCTX-II and bone markers but not the other cartilage markers showed an abrupt menopausal shift in women aged 48-53 years, also when adjusted for age and BMI. CONCLUSION: The similarities between uCTX-II and bone markers could be attributable to a link between cartilage and bone metabolism through metabolic and biomechanical mechanisms. However, other cartilage markers were hardly associated with uCTX-II and did not show such evident associations with bone markers. uCTX-II has unique relations with bone markers as compared to other cartilage markers and might reflect bone rather than cartilage metabolism. More thorough molecular validation of uCTX-II is required.

Cost-effectiveness of intensive exercise therapy directly following hospital discharge in patients with arthritis: results of a randomized controlled clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the cost-utility and cost-effectiveness of a 3-week intensive exercise training (IET) program directly following hospital discharge in patients with rheumatic diseases. METHODS: Patients with arthritis who were admitted to the hospital because of a disease activity flare or for elective hip or knee arthroplasty were randomly assigned to either the IET group or usual care (UC) group. Followup lasted 1 year. Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were derived from Short Form 6D scores and a visual analog scale (VAS) rating personal health. Function-related outcome was measured using the Health Assessment Questionnaire, the McMaster Toronto Arthritis (MACTAR) Patient Preference Disability Questionnaire, and the Escola Paulista de Medicina Range of Motion scale (EPMROM). Costs were reported from a societal perspective. Differences in costs and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were estimated. RESULTS: Data from 85 patients (50 IET and 35 UC) could be used for health-economic analysis. VAS personal health-based QALYs were in favor of IET. Function-related outcome showed statistically significant improvements in favor of IET over the first 6 months, according to the MACTAR (P < 0.05) and the EPMROM (P < 0.01). At 1-year followup, IET was euro718 less per patient. The ICER showed a reduction in mean total costs per QALY. In 70% of cases the intervention was cost-saving. CONCLUSION: IET results in better quality of life at lower costs after 1 year. Thus, IET is the dominant strategy compared with UC. This highlights the need for implementation of IET after hospital discharge in patients with arthritis.

Patient-perceived satisfactory improvement (PPSI): interpreting meaningful change in pain from the patient's perspective.

The assessment of clinically meaningful changes in patient-reported pain has become increasingly important when interpreting results of clinical studies. However, proposed response criteria, such as the minimal clinically important difference, do not correspond with the growing need for information on truly meaningful, individual improvements. The aim of the present study was to investigate satisfactory improvements in pain from the patient's perspective. Data were collected in a 2-week prospective study of 181 arthritis patients treated with a local corticosteroid injection. Baseline and follow-up pain were assessed on 100mm visual analogue scales for pain intensity (VAS-PI). At baseline, patients also marked a hypothetical level on a VAS-PI representing a satisfactory improvement in pain. Patient-perceived satisfactory improvement (PPSI) was constructed using a 5-point categorical rating of change scale at follow-up as the anchor. PPSI was associated with a minimal reduction of 30mm or 55% on the VAS-PI. Since absolute change in pain associated with satisfactory improvement proved highly dependent on baseline pain, percent change scores performed better in classifying improved patients. The 55% threshold for satisfactory improvement was consistent over the course of treatment and reasonably consistent across groups of patients. Our data suggest that PPSI is a clinically relevant and stable concept for interpreting truly meaningful improvements in pain from the individual perspective.