Addressing the Rheumatology Workforce Shortage

Drs. Erin and William Arnold, Sikes and Crump are clinician rheumatologists participating in the RAPP Project. Joiner Associates LLC, the RAPP Project coordinator, employed Dr. Harrington, Mr. Bower and Mr. Johnson.

References

1. Deal CL, Hooker R, Harrington T, et al. The United States rheumatology workforce: Supply and demand 2005–2025. Arthritis Rheum. 2007 Mar;56(3):722–729.
2. Great Health Care: Making It Happen. Harrington JT, Newman ED, eds. New York: Springer USA, 2011.
3. Personal communication.
4. Smolen JS, Aletaha D, Bijlsma JWJ, et al. Treating rheumatoid arthritis to target: Recommendations of an international task force. Ann Rheum Dis. 2010 Apr;69(4):631–637.
5. Arnold E, Arnold W, Conaway D, et al. Physician visits create a bottleneck in RA management. The Rheumatologist. 2015 Jun;9(6):44–46.
6. Sikes D, Bower J, Johnson D, et al. Rheumatoid arthritis disease activity assessment frequencies in clinical practice do not support treat-to-target care [abstract 1027]. 2015 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting Arthritis Rheumatol. 2015;67(suppl 10).
7. Singh J, Saag K, Bridges S, et al. 2015 American College of Rheumatology guideline for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2016 Jan;68(1):1–25.
8. Sikes D, Crump G, Thomas K, et al. Population management of rheumatoid arthritis in rheumatology practices [abstract 1355]. 2014 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting. Arthritis Rheumatol.
9. Winkler A, Mossell J, MacLaughlin E, et al. Rheumatoid arthritis disease activity assessment and population management processes used by clinician rheumatologists [abstract 1352]. 2014 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting. Arthritis Rheumatol.
10. Crump G, Bower J, Foley T, et al. Different rheumatoid arthritis disease activity measures often provide discordant results in clinical practice populations [abstract 2317]. 2015 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2015;67(suppl 10).
11. Curtis J, Chen L, Kilgore M, et al. The clinical and economic costs of not achieving remission in rheumatoid arthritis [abstract 3183]. 2015 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2015;67(suppl 10).
12. Curtis JR, van der Helm-van der Mil AH, Knevel R, et al. Validation of a novel multibiomarker test to assess rheumatoid arthritis disease activity. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2012 Dec;64(12):1794–1803.
13. American College of Rheumatology Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Task Force. Ultrasound in American rheumatology practice: Report of the American College of Rheumatology musculoskeletal ultrasound task force. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2010 Sep;62(9):1206–1219.

Disclosure

Joiner Associates received consulting fees from Crescendo Bioscience for designing and coordinating the project—without any influence from the company. Crescendo Bioscience has also provided support for participant advisory board meetings for this quality-improvement initiative and speaker honoraria to Drs. Arnold, Sikes and Crump. The participating clinician authors have reported no other individual disclosures.