We held our 2nd Annual OBRI Research Day on Friday April 24th in Toronto, and it was a big success! The scientific meeting brought together OBRI investigators, researchers, industry partners, interviewers, and patients from across Ontario to discuss OBRI and RA research.
The day began with opening remarks from Dr. Claire Bombardier, Principal Investigator of OBRI, and proceeded with a number of oral presentations: Dr. Ed Keystone provided an update on OBRI research activities; Dr. Bindlish discussed recent changes to the Royal College Model of Care Program; Dr. Larsen provided informationon the meaningful use of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) data, Dr. Ahluwalia discussed clinical practice tools in EMRs, and Dr. Karasik presented news from the Ontario Rheumatology Association. Following lunch and a poster tour, Dr. Widdifield and Mark Tatangelo presented their ongoing RA research using administrative ICES data linkage, and Cathie Hofstetter presented on the OBRI Patient Advisory Committee and patient-led research.
Posters were presented on a variety of topics such as: patient-reported pain medication use in RA; the characteristics of RA patients with and without cardiovascular disease; patient priorities in RA research; the power of administrative data linkage, the influence of initial/early DAS28 on the durability of the first biologic; medication use in RA patients between university and community settings; and wait-times to rheumatologists.
The day provided an excellent opportunity to connect, share knowledge, and strengthen research partnerships with rheumatologists, patients, researchers, and industry partners. We look forward to our next research day in 2016!