Healthcare Professionals
Professional Education Section
Introduction
The Arthritis Foundation mission is “to improve lives through leadership
in the
prevention, control, and cure of arthritis and related diseases.” One
of the ways Arthritis Foundation, Eastern PA Chapter works to meet this mission,
is to develop relationships with health care providers and medical institutions
to promote quality, multi-disciplinary care for people with arthritis.
The Chapter offers continuing education courses for physicians and other
health care professionals practicing in primary care or rheumatology. We
also offer patient education materials for medical offices. The Arthritis
Foundation is most known for its community-based patient self-management
courses. We invite you to refer your patients with arthritis to this service.
Last, at the national level, the Arthritis Foundation awards grants for arthritis-related
biomedical and health services research. The Chapter is preparing to issue
research grants also, which it will do in cooperation with the national office.
It is estimated that by 2030 the number of adults with arthritis and associated
functional limitations will increase substantially to 25 million. This, coupled
with projected shortages in health care professionals sets the stage for
tremendous challenges in health care access and the delivery of care. The
Chapter seeks to address this by working with medical professionals and institutions
to develop more effective ways of delivering comprehensive arthritis care
especially to patients with arthritis and other co-morbidities.
We invite you to check this website periodically for information about
Arthritis Foundation activity and resource information. We ask too that
you recommend this site to your patients and colleagues.
¹Prevalence of Arthritis and Associated Activity Limitations, J. Hootman,
C Helmick: Arthritis & Rheumatism, 54(1):226-229. January 2006
Electronic Health Records Showcase Case Studies
Change your Perspective…
Transform your Practice.
In May 2006 the Arthritis Foundation, Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter collaborated
with the PA Academy of Family Physicians to present a conference on electronic
medical records and health care technology. We are pleased to cooperate now
with the PA Department of Health to make available online two of the presentations
delivered at the conference: A Case Study: Using an EMR in the Care of a
Patient with Arthritis by Anne Boyd, MD, University of Pittsburg Medical
Center and “Moving PA Health Care Forward”, an introduction to
the PA E-Health Initiative by Darlene Kauffman, PA Medical Society.
You can access the presentations at the PA Department of Health Learning
Management System. The course can be found by going to the "Learn Tab" and
clicking "Public Health Preparedness and Response Courses for Clinicians".
This distance education site is provided to Pennsylvania health care professionals
by the Department of Health as part of the department’s commitment
to the Commonwealth’s public health system.
You will need to register on the distance education site to access the EMR
conference presentations or any of the other programs on the site. Registration
is easy and there is no cost.
For new registration and additional information, go to www.health.state.pa.us/lms.
If you have used the site before simply log on with your user name and password
at www.pahealthinfo.net.
PA Department of Health Learning Management System
www.health.state.pa.us/lms
