Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases | 2021
POS0188\u2005DISEASE ACTIVITY OUTCOME MEASURES ARE ONLY AVAILABLE IN HALF OF THE ELECTRONIC MEDICAL FILES OF PATIENTS WITH AXIAL SPONDYLOARTHRITIS FOLLOWED IN AN OUTPATIENT CLINIC: THE RESULTS OF AN AUDIT OF A TERTIARY-CARE RHEUMATOLOGY DEPARTMENT.
Abstract
Current recommendations for management of patients with axial Spondylarthritis (axSpA) include regular collection of validated disease activity outcomes.This study aimed at evaluating the proportion of patients for whom the elements allowing the calculation of the validated outcome measures were available on the visits reported on the electronic medical records (EMR) and the factors associated with the presence of such information on the EMR.This was a cross-sectional and monocentric observational study conducted in a tertiary-care rheumatology department, EULAR center of excellence and ASAS center. We performed a systematic electronic search among all patients with a SpA diagnosis code who attended an outpatient visit between February 1st, 2018 and February 28th, 2019. Thereafter, a manual search was performed in order to check whether disease activity outcome measures (or the elements allowing its calculation): BASDAI individual questions, Disease activity Global, CRP, BASDAI and ASDAS) were reported on EMR. Patient’s and physician’s demographics disease characteristics (including treatment) and whether the patient had participated in a systematic review were also collected. A descriptive analysis of the percentage of EMR with available outcomes was performed, and the characteristics of patients in whom these measures were available/were not available evaluated by univariable and multivariable analysis (including only variables with p < 0,10 on the univariate)320 EMR of axSpA patients seen in the outpatient clinic were screened and selected. Among them, 178 (55.6%) had at least one disease activity outcome measure reported, while 144(45%) and 123 (38.4%) had a BASDAI and an ASDAS reported, respectively. The most frequently reported disease activity items were duration of morning stiffness (n=230, 72%) and CRP (n=224, 70%).Only previous participation on an educational program for self-assessment was found to be independently associated with a reported disease activity outcome: among the patients participating in such program, 93.1% (n=27/29) had a disease activity measure available, compared to 51.9% (n=151/291) in those who did not participate in such program (p<0.001) (Table 1)Implementation of recommendations with regard to regularly collecting disease activity outcome measures is not optimal. The participation in educational programs including self-assessment educational programs might be one of the keys to improve such implementation.[1]Smolen JS, Braun J, Dougados M, Emery P, Fitzgerald O, Helliwell P, et al. Treating spondyloarthritis, including ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis, to target: recommendations of an international task force. Ann Rheum Dis 2014;73:6–16. https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2013-203419.[2]van der Heijde D, Ramiro S, Landewé R, Baraliakos X, Van den Bosch F, Sepriano A, et al. 2016 update of the ASAS-EULAR management recommendations for axial spondyloarthritis. Ann Rheum Dis 2017;76:978–91. https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2016-210770.Figure 1.Frequency of disease activity measures reporting in the Electronic Medical Record of patients with axial Spondyloarthritis, followed in a tertiary care rheumatology department outpatient clinicTable 1.Factors associated with the presence of a reported disease activity measures on the electronic medical file of patients with axial SpAElodie Portier: None declared, Maxime Dougados: None declared, Christian Roux: None declared, Anna Moltó Consultant of: Abbvie, BMS, MSD, Pfizer, Lilly, UCB Novartis, Grant/research support from: Pfizer