ACR’s Simple Tasks Campaign Gains Ground in Washington, D.C.

“We take these to lawmakers so they can see what … rheumatology patients go through,” Latimer says. “That approach has started to resonate.”

This resonance has translated into visible results among the campaign’s Capitol Hill audience, who are starting to recognize rheumatology. “In terms of the greatest success so far, and I hear this from lots of people, is that when ACR volunteers reach out to government officials and others in positions of influence, they don’t have to spend the first ten minutes of the conversation talking about what rheumatology is and what rheumatologists do,” says Eric M. Ruderman, MD, chair of the ACR Communications and Marketing Committee (CMC), which manages Simple Tasks. The campaign has paved the way to talk about the issues that are important to rheumatologists and their patients, he adds, “so that we can deliver better care to patients.”

According to Dr. Ruderman, some of the issues that are being addressed in Washington include:

• Ensuring that patients with rheumatic diseases have access to effective treatments;
• Promoting legislation that restricts insurers from charging medication copays that are so expensive patients can’t afford them;
• Backing legislation that supports rheumatologists to ensure they are appropriately reimbursed for services, especially for treating Medicare patients; and
• Supporting the National Institutes of Health and research funding and explaining how that research translates into better clinical care.

The Simple Tasks campaign made a recent appearance in Times Square, New York City.

Reaching Referring Physicians

Similar to the campaign in Washington, D.C., the messaging to health professionals aims to increase the value and understanding of rheumatology. The goal is to help referring physicians and health professionals identify patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases and understand when to refer to a rheumatologist. The most important lesson from this outreach, Latimer says, has been that other health professionals want to learn about rheumatology from subject-matter experts.

The standard presence at professional meetings, such as the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the American Academy of Family Physicians, has been hosting an exhibit booth, Latimer says, but that has been expanded to include an “experience station” where attendees can don the simulation gloves. The responses have been “very interesting,” Latimer says, because the physicians are surprised at how difficult it is for their patients with rheumatic disease to complete simple tasks.

In addition to the experience station, Simple Tasks offered a symposium called “Early Recognition and Prompt Management of Rheumatic Disease” at the ACP meeting in April. The symposium included a panel of experts who gave brief presentations, and then spent the majority of their time answering questions from curious participants.