Grant: Project Grant

People living with the same chronic health condition may have different needs for healthcare. A persons' healthcare needs may be determined by many factors including: the number of health conditions they have, the severity of their health conditions, their social environment including work and home life responsibilities, their ability to communicate their health needs and ability access healthcare. Our current models of healthcare delivery are outdated and often only consider a person's health condition and not all the other factors that can potentially affect a person's health outcomes. There have been tools developed to assess different factors that could impact healthcare delivery to better direct care to a person's needs. These tools consider what is called a "biopsychosocial" model of medical care that considers a more holistic approach to a person's well-being. One tool called the INTERMED Self-Assessment (IMSA) has been used to better direct health services to better care for a person's healthcare needs. Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic condition causing joint pain, swelling and is a leading cause of disability. Inflammation from RA can also affect people living with RA in different ways outside of the joints. RA is associated with higher rates of anxiety, depression, lung disease and early death. To best support persons living with RA, health professionals need to better support these needs. In this study we propose to adapt the IMSA for individuals with RA and to test whether we can use this tool to better identify persons with RA who may have different health needs so that we can provide better care.