MSD RA Patient Survey - Message From Clare Jacklin

At the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) medical congress in London last year, the leadership of NRAS met with representatives of MSD (Merck) the international healthcare company, to discuss a project in which people living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the United Kingdom would compare experiences living with this disease with patients in other regions of Europe. The goal of this project is to help determine if RA patients living in select regions in Europe have disease management and treatment experiences that differ from those patients living in other regions. This project will help identify variations in the level of health care received and how these differences may affect everyday activities for people living with RA.

To facilitate this project, a special website has been created at medscinet.com/ra-patientexp... at which you can complete a brief survey questionnaire relating to your personal experiences living with RA. Upon accessing the website, please insert the following when prompted:

Username: UK

Password: ra2012

We invite you to visit this website and complete the questionnaire, which should take about 30 minutes to complete. You will not be asked to identify yourself, nor will any information be obtained that would indicate your identity. As such, your participation will be completely anonymous. Please note that you will only be able to participate if you have, or are taking, Disease Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs (DMARDs) (such as methotrexate (Rheumatrex®), leflunomide (Arava®), hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil®) and sulfasalazine (Azulfidine®).

The results of this survey will be compared with other regions and shared with an international audience of patient organizations, healthcare industry representatives and journalists at the upcoming EULAR congress in Berlin, 6-9 June. We ask that should you decide to complete the questionnaire, to please do so in the days ahead as it will take some time to tabulate the results from other European regions. Also please complete the survey in one sitting so as not to possibly duplicate your responses at a later point.

NRAS supports this effort in the hope that it will further raise awareness and understanding among all relevant parties as to the unique challenges faced by those of us living and working with RA. In addition, Prof. Dr. Iain McInnes, University of Glasgow, has lent his support to this project and will participate in announcing the survey results at EULAR in June. We will also share the results with our members following the EULAR congress.

Thank you for your consideration and for your support in this important project!

Best regards,

Clare Jacklin

NRAS Director of External Affairs

[Hidden]

I have done this survey it was a good survey x

[andrea-GN]

I have done this, found it not too difficult do

[allanah]

Its actually surprised to to writ how much help i ask of people. It only took a few minues as well. Ax

[tiger]

I live in France, can I do the survey with a password for the french health system?

[Hidden]

Thanks everyone! Tiger, the survey is only being directed to people living with RA in England, Sweden and Italy. These countries were identified as being representative of select geographic regions in Europe. Thank you for your interest, I'm sure you will be able to take part in another survey soon!

[sylvi]

Done it.

[Hidden]

Done, doesn't take long at all, less than 10 mins x

[Jan66]

Done it, took only a few minutes.

Makes you think though doesn't it about how many choices and/or difficulties we have to overcome.

I've never been offered biologics????

Jan

[heatherp]

is there anywhere we can see the results of the survey when finished?

[StarlightinJuly]

All done! Thank you.

Julie