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A new campaign aimed at helping patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) to become more actively involved in their disease management has been launched by UCB today, on what is World Arthritis Day.
The ‘Get To Goal’ campaign provides new tools to help patients to establish and achieve personal and treatment goals in partnership with their physician.
Recent treatment recommendations issued by the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR), highlight the importance of healthcare professionals agreeing patient treatment targets and goals that are monitored over a three month period – called the ‘treat-to-target’ concept.
The ‘treat-to-target’ concept has been successful in other disease areas, such as diabetes, arterial hypertension and coronary heart disease, but has not been fully utilised among the RA community.
“The use of goals and targets is an important patient strategy in managing rheumatoid arthritis,” said Prof Iris Loew-Friedrich, Chief Medical Officer at UCB.
“Despite the fact patients agree that setting goals and targets would be of benefit many patients say that their doctor does not currently discuss approaches that achieve personal targets.
“The Get to Goal Campaign aims to help patients set goals and track them, which we know is something patients are looking for.”
Results from a recent survey of 1,829 RA patients reinforced the importance of patient involvement in decision-making, with 82% saying they would like more control over how their disease is managed and 76% would like more in-depth conversations about their condition with their doctor.
Many patients are unaware of the ‘treat-to-target’ approach, with 60% of patients reporting that they have not heard of it.1 The ‘Get to Goal’ campaign is an initiative from UCB, which consists of a series of patient-resources.
These include newly developed Get to Goal – RA Treatment and Management Tools, Get to Goal Exercise Programme, as well as Get to Goal Patient Lifestyle Guides.
These tools and resources are available for doctors, patient groups and medical centres, and are aimed at helping patients to better understand their RA and work with their physician to set goals and better monitor progression of their disease.
The campaign addresses growing evidence that goal-setting may not be part of everyday clinical practice for patients living with RA. For example, survey results showed that while 87% of all respondents agreed that establishing and achieving personal treatment targets would have a positive impact on the management of their disease, and 73% said that their doctor or healthcare professional did not discuss approaches that achieved personal targets.
If left untreated RA can lead to irreversible joint damage, but through a ‘treat–to–target’ approach patients and their doctors can proactively manage RA progression by tracking their physical activity.
RA patients can proactively improve their disease activity by incorporating physical activity into their daily routine, which can also improve general sense of wellbeing.
Get to Goal has been developed by UCB to complement World Arthritis Day’s ‘Move to Improve’ campaign.
As the campaign theme for this year’s World Arthritis Day ‘Move to Improve’ recognises the importance of physical activity and focuses on healthy and easy ways to include exercise into a patient’s daily routine.
