title: Optimisation of rheumatic disease assessments in clinical trials, clinical care, and long-term databases.
abstract: The assessment of disease in rheumatological diseases is rather complicated, because it may involve different contexts (clinical practice, clinical trials, observational studies, registries, etc.) as well as different domains (disease activity, physical function, radiographic damage, quality of life, etc.). Furthermore, available tools can be comprehensive but also rather condense, may be patient-oriented or rather physician-oriented, and so on. In this article all these levels that may matter in case of a choice of disease assessment tool are discussed, arriving at a conclusion that choosing the appropriate tool for the assessment of disease is not 'cookbook medicine'.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Rheumatology and Immunology, Academic medical center, Amsterdam, & Atrium Medical Center Heerlen, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. landewe@rlandewe.nl.
authors.forename: R B M
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Landewé
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: van der Heijde
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D019091:Critical Pathways; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D010808:Physical Examination; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012216:Rheumatic Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome