With respect to clinical benefit, triple therapy, with sulfasalazine and hydroxychloroquine added to methotrexate, was noninferior to etanercept plus methotrexate in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who had active disease despite methotrexate therapy. (Funded by the Cooperative Studies Program, Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Research and Development, and others; CSP 551 RACAT ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00405275.)
Our results highlight a current shortage of rheumatologists in Canada that may worsen in the next 10 years because one-third of the workforce plans to retire. Efforts to encourage trainees to enter rheumatology and strategies to support retention are critical to address the shortage.
Key PointsQuestionWhat patient, prescriber, and regional factors are associated with time to first prescription of biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) among patients 67 years or older with rheumatoid arthritis?FindingsIn this cohort study of 17 672 older patients with rheumatoid arthritis, patients were more likely to receive biologic DMARDs earlier if they were younger, female, and living in urban areas closer to prescribers. Physician preference was strongly associated with differences in time from first conventional synthetic DMARD to first biologic DMARD.MeaningIn this study, pharmacologic care for rheumatoid arthritis was not uniform across patients and prescribers given similar disease characteristics in a population with identical health insurance coverage.
Background:The Wait Time Alliance recently established wait time benchmarks for rheumatology consultations in Canada. Our aim was to quantify wait times to primary and rheumatology care for patients with rheumatic diseases.
Methods:We identified patients from primary care practices in the Electronic Medical Record Administrative data Linked Database who had referrals to Ontario rheumatologists over the period 2000-2013. To assess the full care pathway, we identified dates of symptom onset, presentation in primary care and referral from electronic medical records. Dates of rheumatologist consultations were obtained by linking with physician service claims. We determined the duration of each phase of the care pathway (symptom onset to primary care encounter, primary care encounter to referral, and referral to rheumatologist consultation) and compared them with established benchmarks.Results: Among 2430 referrals from 168 family physicians, 2015 patients (82.9%) were seen by 146 rheumatologists within 1 year of referral. Of the 2430 referrals, 2417 (99.5%) occurred between 2005 and 2013. The main reasons for referral were osteoarthritis (32.4%) and systemic inflammatory rheumatic diseases (30.6%). Wait times varied by diagnosis and geographic region. Overall, the median wait time from referral to rheumatologist consultation was 74 (interquartile range 27-101) days; it was 66 (interquartile range 18-84) days for systemic inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Wait time benchmarks were not achieved, even for the most urgent types of referral. For systemic inflammatory rheumatic diseases, most of the delays occurred before referral.Interpretation: Rheumatology wait times exceeded established benchmarks. Targeted efforts are needed to promote more timely access to both primary and rheumatology care. Routine linkage of electronic medical records with administrative data may help fill important gaps in knowledge about waits to primary and specialty care.
Abstract
ResearchResearch CMAJ OPEN
E206CMAJ OPEN 4(2)
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