Dr. Harvey: The main reason I wanted to volunteer was just to get a better sense of community with my peers across the country. There aren’t all that many of us in this field, so when you’re in your own little world, whether a department or practice, it’s hard to feel connected to other people.
And the second main reason is that for a long time—since high school really—one of my hobbies has been doing advocacy work, and government advocacy specifically. Once I began to learn about everything the ACR was doing in the space of healthcare reform and healthcare advocacy, I suddenly realized for the first time that I could combine my love of the specialty with my desire to continue to do government relations work.
TR: What other volunteer ACR positions have you held?
Dr. Harvey: My first volunteer position was as a fellow-in-training member on the Government Affairs Committee (GAC). Then the ACR Board of Directors had started a position called Young Board Member, which is open to those under the age of 40, so I served in that capacity. After that, I went on to chair the GAC for three years. Then I went back to serve on the Board of Directors, and most recently, I have spent about two and a half years as chair of the Registries & Health Information Technology (RHIT) committee.
TR: The RHIT has been concentrating on the Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness (RISE). Can you describe that work?
Dr. Harvey: RISE is the largest registry of real-world data in rheumatology in the U.S, collecting data from participating practices all across the country. It allows that data to be used not only by researchers, but also by practices so they can successfully compete in the Medicare Quality Payment Programs. One of the reasons it has been so meaningful for practices is that it has helped ensure that Medicare’s quality measures are meaningful and consonant with the work that we do every day, rather than more generic measures that apply to almost any physician but not rheumatologists specifically.
In addition, the RHIT is also hoping to grow an initiative called the Learning Collaborative, which is a way of bringing together RISE data users together so they can share with and learn from each other to ultimately improve the work rheumatologists do and the care of our patients.
