Unmet Needs

 
III.B.10.0
 

Lead Author(s): 

Marc C. Hochberg, MD

Supporting Author(s): 

Sylvia I. Watkins-Castillo, PhD

Major unmet needs for patients with arthritis include new, effective interventions for the safe treatment of chronic pain, improving insurance coverage for effective evidence-based, non-pharmacologic interventions, as well as newer, targeted small molecules, biologic DMARDs, and the development and approval of Disease Modifying Osteoarthritis Drugs (DMOADs) to slow or prevent progression of osteoarthritis.

Additionally, there is an ongoing need for research funding to understand the pathophysiology of the various forms of arthritis with the goal of estabilishing effective strategies for primary prevention, determining the appropriate timing for surgical intervention and the role of pre- and post-operative exercise programs to maximize functional recovery after surgical interventions, and understanding the underlying reasons for the observed sex/gender and race/ethnicity disparities in most forms of arthritis and systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Meeting future patient care needs will require increasing the workforce size of medical professionals. The 2015 Workforce Study by the American College of Rheumatology reported an excess demand for adult rheumatology care givers over current workforce projections of nearly 3200 professionals by 2030 and an excess demand of nearly 200 professionals in pediatric rheumatology.1 Other specialists in the care of arthritis likely show similar workforce demands.

Edition: 

  • Fourth Edition

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