Throughout her 27-year career in healthcare, Ms. Batterman’s clinical, program and research work has focused on supporting and enhancing patients’ ability to cope with the physical and emotional impact of chronic illness. Since 1999, Ms. Batterman has developed and continues to provide strategic oversight to innovative patient-focused support and education programs for people with inflammatory arthritis. These vital forums provide camaraderie for, and a community where people with inflammatory arthritis and their loved ones can learn about inflammatory arthritis management while processing its emotional impact. Ms. Batterman’s work focuses on integrating patient perspective into program development and research via focus groups, needs assessments and patient partner input.
To address health disparities in Hispanic rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, Ms. Batterman is currently overseeing the development of a culturally tailored, bilingual (i.e., Spanish/English) support and education pilot. This program’s approach will incorporate input from Latinx patients with RA, building on evidence-based, culturally tailored outreach and self-management strategies.
Ms. Batterman has served as co-investigator on multiple research initiatives that emphasize patient perspective, including the development of a self-management mobile app for people with lupus and identifying the relevance of Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) items in systemic lupus erythematosus, as well as principal investigator on studies concerning the self-management needs of people with gout, and the development of a program evaluation tool for an early RA support and education program.
She is currently serving as co-investigator on two qualitative studies: exploring the psychological experience of work for people living with inflammatory arthritis, and the support and education needs of Latinx/Hispanic patients with RA.
Ms. Batterman has also supported the professional growth of social work students and colleagues through individual and peer group supervision and presentations on an integrative biopsychosocial approach to working with patients who have inflammatory arthritis. She has also presented professional educational content for ACR/ARP annual meetings over the past 20 years, including the 2018 Daltroy Memorial Lecture: Healer, Know Thy Patient (and Thyself): What Matters in Patient-Provider Relationships? Values, Attitudes and Beliefs. Most recently, Ms. Batterman authored a new module in the Fundamentals of Rheumatology Course (FRC), titled “Addressing Psychosocial Issues in Rheumatic Illness.”
Ms. Batterman has served the ARP in multiple roles and committees over the past 10 years, including as member of the Practice Committee, Executive Committee, liaison to the Committee on Education and, most recently, as chair-elect of the eLearning Subcommittee.
