“Sometimes just mentioning information to a patient will encourage them to delve deeper and learn more,” Dr. Jolly acknowledges. “We are interested to see how this control group compares with the RA patients who do watch the video.”
An Efficient & Cost-Effective Method
The overarching goal of Dr. Jolly’s research and educational video intervention is to understand how rheumatologists can most effectively educate their patients to take control of their cardiovascular health.
“Sometimes patients can be their own best advocates for improving their health [after] they understand their risks and the changes they can make to reduce these risks from becoming life-threatening,” she says.
With all study data analyzed, Dr. Jolly and her team will make any necessary tweaks to the video and post it online, making it accessible to the public and other rheumatologists. Rheumatologists will be able to easily share the video and/or link in their waiting rooms and after visiting with patients.
“The brief period of time we have with a patient during a clinic visit is often filled with discussing RA symptoms and progress, examining the patient, reviewing their labs or X-rays and discussing potential side effects of medications and their management plan. It is very challenging to also discuss cardiovascular health,” she says. “This video could serve as a free, time-saving tool to give patients the power to build their knowledge in a way they can apply to their daily lives.”
Carina Stanton is a freelance science journalist in Denver.
References
- Sen D, Gonzalez-Mayda M, Brasington RD Jr. Cardiovascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis. Rheum Dis Clin North Am. 2014 Feb;40 (1):27–49.
- Jolly M, Kugasia A, Cordova C, et al. Web-based educational intervention to improve cardiovascular disease knowledge among RA patients [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2017 Oct;69(suppl 10).
