Telemedicine in the management of rheumatoid arthritis: maintaining disease control with less health-care utilization.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

We aimed to evaluate the use of an eHealth platform and a self-management outpatient clinic in patients with RA in a real-world setting. The effects on health-care utilization and disease activity were studied.

Methods

Using hospital data of patients with RA between 2014 and 2019, the use of an eHealth platform and participation in a self-management outpatient clinic were studied. An interrupted time series analysis compared the period before and after the introduction of the eHealth platform. The change in trend (relative to the pre-interruption trend) for the number of outpatient clinic visits and the DAS for 28 joints (DAS28) were determined for several scenarios.

Results

After implementation of the platform in April 2017, the percentage of patients usin

SUBMITTER: Muskens WD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7928564 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature