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Quality indicators in rheumatoid arthritis care: using measurement to promote quality improvement
  1. Claire Bombardier1,2,3,4,
  2. Samra Mian2
  1. 1Division of Rheumatology and Department of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario Canada
  2. 2Toronto General Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  3. 3Institute for Work and Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  4. 4Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Dr Claire Bombardier, Institute for Work and Health, 481 University Avenue, 8th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2E9, Canada; claire.bombardier{at}utoronto.ca

Abstract

Quality of care improvement has become a priority for decision-makers. Important variations in the quality and cost of care are being documented often without evidence of improved outcomes. Therapeutic advances are not consistently applied to practice despite efforts from professional organisations to create guidelines. The quality movement emerged following increasing evidence that the creation and measurement of quality indicators can improve quality of care and health outcomes. Quality indicators can measure healthcare system performance across providers, system levels and regions. In rheumatology, early efforts to develop quality measures have focused on examining all aspects of care while more recent efforts have focused on disease course monitoring. The American College Rheumatology has recently endorsed seven quality indicators for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that are evidence based and measurable for use in routine rheumatology practices. This review provides an overview on quality indicators in rheumatology with a focus on RA, and discusses the application of quality measures into routine rheumatology practices to improve quality of care for RA.

  • Rheumatoid Arthritis
  • Quality Indicators
  • Treatment

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