Influence of an educational seminar on use of disease activity measurements by rheumatologists in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the variables underlying clinical decisions made by rheumatologists when treating patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to determine the effect of an educational seminar on the use of quantitative disease activity measurements in clinical practice in this population of physicians.


METHODS
Practicing rheumatologists were surveyed on the variables affecting their clinical management of patients with RA by questionnaire. Physicians were divided into 2 groups: the first comprised attenders (Group A) to an educational seminar in the use of the quantitative disease activity measurements in patient management, while the second group comprised nonattenders (Group NA). Both groups were surveyed on their practice behavior before (Survey 1) and 2 to 3 months after (Survey 2) the seminar.


RESULTS
Fifty-two rheumatologists in clinical practice from across the US completed and returned 364 surveys. A significantly greater number of rheumatologists in Group A reported use of disease activity measures following the training seminar (Survey 2), compared to their use pre-meeting and compared to Group NA (p < 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results support employment of an educational seminar on the use of disease activity measurements to increase the use of these quantitative measures in rheumatologic practice.
Hamburger
Max I
MI
State University of New York Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
Hamburger
Fran H
FH
Bergman
J Martin
JM
Epstein
Alan
A
Brown
Alan
A
D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003625:Data Collection; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D006801:Humans; D012219:Rheumatology / Q000193:education*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index