“I’m hopeful we’ll be able to inform rheumatologists about what roles are appropriate and help them develop a patient-centered approach to helping patients modify their CVD risk factors, whether that be [by] empowering primary care physicians with knowledge and having them manage these risks, or [having] the rheumatologists themselves actively engage in helping modify risks,” Dr. Bartels adds.
Determining the interventions that will help RA patients manage and modify CVD risk is the next step in Dr. Bartels’ research. She’s currently conducting an examination of RA visit notes and clinical data. Her plan is to couple that information with interviews of primary care physicians, rheumatologists, and patients to determine how engaged each group is in conversations around CVD risk and how patients envision optimal input from their treatment providers.
“We’ll be able to describe the relative impact of those different roles and patient preferences so that we can better partner with our patients to help them understand and manage their modifiable heart disease risks,” Dr. Bartels says.
For more information about the Bridge Funding Award and other Rheumatology Research Foundation awards and grants programs, visit www.rheumatology.org/Foundation or contact Damian Smalls at (404) 633-3777, or [email protected].
Funding for this award was made possible in part through the financial support of the Arthritis Foundation.