New OA Patient Guidelines
Upper Nyack, New York-based CreakyJoints has announced the publication of “Raising the Voice of Patients: A Patient’s Guide to Living With Osteoarthritis.”
According to CreakyJoints Co-Founder and Executive Director Louis Tharp: “The OA [osteoarthritis] patient guidelines help the newly diagnosed, as well as experienced patients like me, better understand our management options. We are able to position ourselves as a significant voice in determining our care. They help me communicate treatment preferences and goals that fit my lifestyle.”
The editors of “Raising the Voice of the Patients: A Patient’s Guide to Living with Osteoarthritis,” were David Borenstein, M.D., clinical professor of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology at The George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC, Jonathan Krant, M.D., chairman of Medicine & section chief of Rheumatology, Adirondack Health Systems, Saranac Lake, New York, and Tuhina Neogi, M.D., Ph. D., professor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, professor, Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health.
Dr. Borenstein told OTW, “What I found most interesting in helping edit the OA guideline was realizing the number of non-pharmacological and pharmacological therapies that are available for the treatment of the most common form of arthritis. From losing weight, to walking, to oral treatment, to injections, a number of interventions can make a difference in the function of people with osteoarthritis.”
“I think the most important recommendation to patients with osteoarthritis is that they should not give up if a therapy does not work. The goal of therapy is function, not total pain relief. Patients respond to different therapies. It is a trial and error method to find the one that works for that individual. Osteoarthritis patients should read through the guideline and choose the therapies that make sense to them and try them. The expectation is that one or another will work and readers of this guideline will be better.”
The Medical Advisor for CreakyJoints, Vinicius Domingues, M.D., told OTW, “I believe the guideline is a powerful tool for patients to inform themselves about OA and review the options available for treatment. It is very important to address, especially with regards to knee OA, that weight loss is pivotal to decrease progression of cartilage loss and to alleviate the pain.”
“Often times, I even suggest, for patients that qualify, to undergo bariatric surgery or gastric sleeve if they had failure aggressive weight loss program. Furthermore, the guidelines outline in detail the options for treatment and potential side effects of all medications. Unfortunately, the landscape for OA has not changed dramatically in the last 20 years but we have some promising agents under investigation and in the next 5-10 years I believe the field will be revolutionized. One other important and necessary message is that opioids are not really the most efficacious treatment option and they carry significant side effects.”
