2012 Grant Awards

The posters and papers listed below each grant arise from work facilitated through the grant funding.

Does early, aggressive, and persistent use of DMARD therapy reduce downstream healthcare care costs attributable to RA: an instrumental variable approach using observational administrative data

Principal Investigator: Bansback, N (PDF)
Co-investigators: Anis,A; Lacaille, D; Shojania, K

Project Summary

This project has been examining the utilization of early aggressive conventional DMARD therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and its impact on future costs to the health care system. This analysis considered triple therapy, a combination of old DMARDs which has recently been found to be not inferior to biologic DMARDs. Our analysis shows that only 20-30% of patients receive triple therapy prior to receiving a biologic. We calculate that if triple therapy utilization is increased, $10’s of millions can be saved in Canada without impairing patient’s health.

Poster Presentations

Presented at the 2015 Canadian Rheumatology Association meeting.

• Potential cost savings from triple therapy use. An example from British Columbia, Canada (PDF)