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World Arthritis Day: Helping patients ‘Get to Goal’
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UCB is launching a new campaign to help patients with rheumatoid arthritis to play a more active role in managing their disease.
Scott Fleming, Global Communications, Immunology
12-Oct-2011The ‘Get to Goal’ initiative provides new tools to support doctors and patients to work together in setting personal targets.
Launched on World Arthritis Day, this is part of our response to the growing evidence that patients believe personalised goal-setting can have a positive effect on their disease management.
As I mentioned in a previous post, a survey on this subject caught my eye at this year’s European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) conference in London. It showed 87% of patients believe setting targets can be a really useful strategy.
Despite the fact patients agree that setting goals and targets would be of benefit, many patients say that their doctor does not currently discuss approaches that achieve personal targets. The Get to Goal Campaign aims to help patients set goals and track them, which we know is something patients are looking for.
EULAR has highlighted the importance of the ‘treat to target’ concept which sees patients and healthcare professionals work towards agreed goals over a three month period.
This idea has been used to great effect in other disease areas – such as diabetes, arterial hypertension and coronary heart disease – but has yet to be fully embraced by the RA community. We want to change that.
References- Taylor P et al. Expectations of treatment goals and goal setting practices in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). 2011 European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) annual meeting. Poster # FRI0256
- Smolen J et al. EULAR recommendation for the management of rheumatoid arthritis with synthetic and biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Ann Rheum Dis (2010). 2010 Jun;69(6):964-75. Epub 2010 May 5.
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