Telehealth Follow-up in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory joint disease with a high burden both for the patient and society. Outcomes for the individuals living with RA have been improved and the majority of RA patients are now in remission or low disease activity status. RA patients continue to be followed up by pre-scheduled visits, which may compromise accessibility for the sickest and thus, quality of care. The introduction of patient-initiated follow-up leads to a reduction in the use of outpatient clinic services without compromising outcomes. Self-monitoring and remote patient monitoring are facilitated by electronic innovative health tools. Among RA patients with low disease activity or remission, a Patient-Reported Outcome-based telehealth follow-up for tight control of disease activity in RA can achieve similar disease control as conventional outpatient follow-up and is likely to reduce the costs. Thus, the main objective of the present project is to test the effect of a customized PRO-based telehealth follow-up compared to a conventional prescheduled outpatient follow-up to monitor disease activity and expenses associated with the follow-up in Norwegian RA patients.