Arthritis Research Canada strives to accelerate discoveries aimed at preventing arthritis, facilitating early diagnosis, providing new and better treatments and improving quality of life. Our research scientists are working tirelessly behind the scenes to evaluate the care that arthritis patients receive.
They are studying access to rheumatologists, side effects of different treatments and medications, safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, mental health support, pregnancy and biologics and much more. If you have a question about arthritis, we have research to address it. Think of arthritis research as a healthcare report card that identifies what is working and what could be done better for arthritis patients.
Click the below menu to learn more about how we are addressing quality of care through research.
Quality of Care
- Optimizing Early Treatment Strategies in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis through Shared Decision-Making
- Scoping Review of Balanced Scorecards for Use in Healthcare Settings: Development and Implementation
- Understanding the Effect of Adherence to System-Level Performance Measures on Outcomes for Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Developing a Patient-Centered Balanced Scorecard Approach for Rheumatoid Arthritis
- A Canadian Evaluation Framework for Quality Improvement in Childhood Arthritis: Key Performance Indicators of the Process of Care
- Evaluating Quality of Care for Rheumatoid Arthritis for the Population of Alberta Using System-Level Performance Measures
- Development of a Patient-Centered Quality Measurement Framework for Measuring, Monitoring, and Optimizing Rheumatoid Arthritis Care in Canada
- Brief Report: Adaptation of American College of Rheumatology Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity and Functional Status Measures for Telehealth Visits
- Implementation and Evaluation of Audit and Feedback for Monitoring Treat-to-Target (T2T) Strategies in Rheumatoid Arthritis Using Performance Measures
- A Population-Based Approach to Reporting System-Level Performance Measures for Rheumatoid Arthritis Care – PubMed
- Systematic Review of Outcomes and Patient Experience with Virtual Care in Rheumatoid Arthritis
- A scoping Review of Tools Used to Assess Patient Complexity in Rheumatic Disease
- Patient and Rheumatologist Perspectives on Tapering DMARDs in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Qualitative Study
- Proof of Concept Study of an EMR Reminder Intervention to Optimize the Primary and Secondary Prevention of Comorbidities in People with Inflammatory Arthritis
- Strategies for Developing and Implementing a Rheumatoid Arthritis Healthcare Quality Framework: A Thematic Analysis of Perspectives from Arthritis Stakeholders
- Prevention of Chronic Diseases Due to Inflammation in Inflammatory Arthritis: Results of a Delphi Process to Select Care Recommendations for an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Intervention
Guidelines
- Canadian Rheumatology Association Recommendation for the Use of COVID-19 Vaccination for Patients with Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases
- National Priorities for High-Quality Rheumatology Transition Care for Youth in Canada
- Priorities for High-Quality Care in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Results of Patient, Health Professional, and Policy Maker Perspectives
Decision Aids
- Development of an Implementation Strategy for Patient Decision Aids in Rheumatoid Arthritis through Application of the Behaviour Change Wheel
- Using a Discrete-Choice Experiment in a Decision Aid to Nudge Patients Towards Value-Concordant Treatment Choices in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Proof-of-Concept Study
- Effects of a Web-Based Patient Decision Aid on Biologic and Small Molecule Agents for Rheumatoid Arthritis: Results from a Proof-of-Concept Study
Research Scientists
Dr. Claire Barber, MD, PhD, FRCPC
Research Scientist, Arthritis Research Canada
Dr. Claire Barber is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine. She is also a research scientist at Arthritis Research Canada and a practicing rheumatologist.
For her PhD thesis, Dr. Barber developed the first set of quality indicators for cardiovascular care for rheumatoid arthritis. She has also developed nationally recognized expertise in quality measure development and has worked extensively with the Arthritis Alliance of Canada to develop a framework for evaluating models of care for inflammatory arthritis.
Dr. Glen Hazlewood, MD, PhD, FRCPC
Research Scientist, Arthritis Research Canada
Dr. Glen Hazlewood is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine. He is also a research scientist at Arthritis Research Canada and a practicing rheumatologist.
Dr. Hazlewood’s research focus is on understanding how to align treatment choices in rheumatoid arthritis with best evidence and patient preferences. His research is guided by a belief that patients should have a central role in which treatments they take and which treatments physicians recommend for them. He chairs the Guidelines Committee through the Canadian Rheumatology Association and is leading the development of Canadian Guidelines for rheumatoid arthritis. With these guidelines, he is taking a novel approach to incorporating patient preferences – a first internationally.
Dr. Diane Lacaille, MDCM, MHSc, FRCPC
Scientific Director, Arthritis Research Canada
Dr. Diane Lacaille is the Mary Pack Chair in Rheumatology Research and a professor in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of British Columbia. She is also the Scientific Director of Arthritis Research Canada and a practicing rheumatologist.
Dr. Lacaille’s research focuses on two areas: 1) Studying the impact of arthritis on employment and preventing work disability. To that effect, she has developed Making-it-WorkTM , an online program helping people with arthritis deal with employment issues. 2) Evaluating the quality of health care services received by people with rheumatoid arthritis. Her research has been supported by peer reviewed grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Arthritis Network, The Arthritis Society of Canada and the Canadian Rheumatology Association. She was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal in 2013 for her research contributions.
