JointHealth™ express February 27, 2014
The JointHealth™ Report Card and Arthritis Medications Guide issue
While there are no cures for arthritis, scientific advances and improved treatments, along with a better understanding of combination medication therapy, are allowing people with arthritis to live healthier, more productive lives. In particular, advances in the area of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic medications (or “DMARDs”) and biologic response modifiers (or “biologics”) have radically changed health outcomes—for the better—of thousands of people living with a number of the more than 100 types of arthritis.
To ensure that all Canadians have access to the medications they need to treat their arthritis, Arthritis Consumer Experts (ACE) created the first JointHealth™ Report Card on Provincial Formulary Reimbursements for Biologic Response Modifiers in 2007. Serving as a way to keep Canadians aware of how well their province compares to the rest of Canada in its cost coverage of medications, the Report Card ranks publicly funded medication formularies based on the number of medically necessary biologic arthritis medications they list.
The Report Card is available online at jointhealth.org and updated monthly. Once a year, it is printed and distributed to JointHealth™ monthly readers and subscribers, elected officials, arthritis specialists and healthcare professionals across Canada.
Inside this issue of JointHealth™ monthly, in addition to the Report Card you will find:
The JointHealth™ Report Card and Arthritis Medications Guide issue
While there are no cures for arthritis, scientific advances and improved treatments, along with a better understanding of combination medication therapy, are allowing people with arthritis to live healthier, more productive lives. In particular, advances in the area of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic medications (or “DMARDs”) and biologic response modifiers (or “biologics”) have radically changed health outcomes—for the better—of thousands of people living with a number of the more than 100 types of arthritis.
To ensure that all Canadians have access to the medications they need to treat their arthritis, Arthritis Consumer Experts (ACE) created the first JointHealth™ Report Card on Provincial Formulary Reimbursements for Biologic Response Modifiers in 2007. Serving as a way to keep Canadians aware of how well their province compares to the rest of Canada in its cost coverage of medications, the Report Card ranks publicly funded medication formularies based on the number of medically necessary biologic arthritis medications they list.
The Report Card is available online at jointhealth.org and updated monthly. Once a year, it is printed and distributed to JointHealth™ monthly readers and subscribers, elected officials, arthritis specialists and healthcare professionals across Canada.
Inside this issue of JointHealth™ monthly, in addition to the Report Card you will find:
- A chart listing important information about the medications used to treat arthritis in Canada, called the JointHealth™ Arthritis Medications Guide.
- An interview with Dr. Kam Shojania of the Arthritis Research Centre of Canada, in which he tells us about emerging medications for treating the most common forms of inflammatory and autoimmune arthritis.
- Details of ACE’s campaign to raise awareness about subsequent entry biologics (SEBs) in BC, Alberta, and Ontario.
- Information about exciting new research that was presented late last year in an annual conference that brings together researchers from around the world.
Arthritis Consumer Experts
ACE thanks Arthritis Research Canada (ARC) for its scientific review of ACE and JointHealth™ information and education programs.