The AHRP Research Committee Enhances Research Knowledge, Skills for Members

The ARHP Research Subcommittee has recently developed and delivered webinars about new methodologies for study design and the use of novel analytical approaches.
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Editor’s note: The new Pillar Talk column is developed by the ARHP Executive Committee in an effort to share information about ongoing activities related to our four pillars: Education, Practice, Research and Advocacy.

The ARHP Research Subcommittee is committed to promoting research and enhancing research opportunities for health professionals and researchers working in rheumatology. A key area of focus over the past two years has been enhancing the knowledge and skills of our membership through the visibility and dissemination of exceptional research. Looking forward, we plan to increase our alignment of ARHP research priorities with the new ACR Strategic Plan.

Increasing Visibility of Research for ARHP Membership

The ARHP consists of a diverse group of individuals from many fields who strive to enhance the lives of the patients we serve. In our previous ARHP Pillar Talk article about clinical practice (“It Takes a Village,” August 2017), we noted that 14 different categories of health professionals make up the membership of ARHP. A consistent theme across these disciplines is the need to conduct research to find more effective and scalable interventions, explore models of care or efficiencies in delivery models, and understand the multifactorial pathogenesis of rheumatic diseases, to name a few critical targets.

The ARHP Research Subcommittee seeks to increase research visibility to accommodate the needs of the various disciplines. To do this, we have focused on delivering webinars about new methodologies for study design and the use of novel analytical approaches. For example, last year we offered a webinar, “Expanding the Research Toolbox: A new framework for building effective and efficient interventions.” These webinars have been an efficient approach for communicating with our membership. Typically, 30–50 participants register for the actual event; we continue to archive these webinars and make them available on our website. Some of these archived webinars have been viewed more than 250 times by our membership and outside stakeholders.

Another approach to increasing ARHP research dissemination is through Annual Meeting proposals. These proposals tend to focus on a wide range of research topics and are typically delivered by experts in our ARHP membership. For example, our Research Subcommittee hosted a session at the 2015 Annual Meeting titled, “Moving Evidence to Action: Translate Research into Patient Care.” In addition, at the 2016 Annual Meeting, the ARHP Research Subcommittee hosted a session on “Comparative Effectiveness Trials in Rheumatology: Rationale, Design and Analysis.”