Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Arthritis Foundation Co-Sponsor Expert Roundtable to Improve Arthritis Care
By: Julie A. Bednark
On Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 50 national experts gathered at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine to discuss advancing the care and outcomes for adults living with arthritis. This roundtable, co-sponsored by Feinberg’s Department of Medical Social Sciences (MSS), Rheumatology, and Orthopedics, along with the Arthritis Foundation, aims to enhance screening, monitoring, and care for arthritis patients across the United States.
Arthritis, including osteoarthritis and inflammatory arthritis, is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. As the population ages, the prevalence of osteoarthritis increases, with 60% of adults over 65 experiencing pain and limited physical function due to arthritis in their knees, hips, or lower back. While effective treatments exist, there is no cure for arthritis, making the measurement and management of symptoms crucial for optimal care.
Feinberg’s MSS department is renowned for developing and implementing patient-reported outcome measures (PROs) across various health conditions. The Arthritis Foundation partnered with Patricia D. Franklin, MD, MBA, MPH, a professor who has led national initiatives to use PROs for improving patient-centered decision-making and outcomes in arthritis surgery to host this meeting. Leena Sharma, MD, MS, a rheumatologist and osteoarthritis expert, surgeons from the Feinberg Department of Orthopedics, and David Cella, PhD, professor and lead scientific developer of the PROMIS measurement system, also collaborated to create the event. Rinad Beidas, PhD, Chair of Medical Social Sciences, noted “I’m very grateful to Dr. Franklin and the Arthritis Foundation for bringing together expertise in outcomes and measurement science and implementation science to envision how to transform arthritis care. I’m also grateful to our colleagues from Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Rheumatology and Orthopedics, and the Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science, and the many clinicians, patients, and other constituent groups, who came together to map out a new vision for this work.”
The Arthritis Foundation, a leading patient advocacy group, will work with clinical, research, and patient advocacy experts to define methods for accelerating best practices in using PROs to measure pain and function, aiming to improve arthritis care nationwide. This initiative is timely, as the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services will mandate the use of PROs, including PROMIS measures, by 2027 for arthritis patients undergoing total knee or hip replacement surgery.