2016 Grant Awards

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

Measuring geographic variation in access to care for rheumatoid arthritis patients and related outcomes: A patient-centered approach

Principal Investigators: Barber, C; Marshall, D.
Co-investigators: Katz,S; Bertazzon, S; Patel, A; Mosher, D; Homik, J; Nasr. M; Smith, C; Robert, J

Project Summary

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease with no cure, affecting approximately 30,000 Albertans, mostly women. Alberta faces a shortage of rheumatologists and patients with RA who live in northern and southern rural zones have to travel long distances to access appropriate RA care. Currently there is a lack of sufficient information for health planners to determine regional and local needs for RA health services. In this project we are assessing geographic variation in access to RA health services, quality of care and related outcomes for patients with RA in Alberta using administrative data. This work will produce maps and identify geographic hot and cold spots (e.g., localized high and low clusters of patients and health services, as well as better and worse quality of care and outcomes). This work will help health planners in the province identify areas in need of increased/better service prevision for rheumatology care.