ARHP News: Celebrating a Year of Achievements

Dr. Ehrlich-Jones

What an exciting year 2010 has been for the ARHP! We have made amazing progress in education, collaboration, and charting the ARHP’s future. To help you understand what the ARHP leadership and staff are doing on your behalf, I would like to share a few of our accomplishments from the past year.

Achievements in Education

In the area of education, the ARHP moved its education staff to the ACR to integrate and streamline the work of our face-to-face educational offerings. This allowed for the awarding of CME credit for ARHP sessions at the 2010 ACR/ARHP Annual Scientific Meeting.

At this year’s annual meeting, the ARHP will offer a preconference course on biologic infusions, 62 interprofessional sessions, and 115 abstracts to advance the knowledge of clinical care and research for rheumatology health professionals. This represents one of the largest programs the ARHP has offered in recent years.

For the first time in 10 years, the ARHP will offer four hands-on workshops based on the highly successful Advanced Practice Skills Training Course. These workshops are two hours and will provide hands-on training in Adult Musculoskeletal Assessment of Upper/Lower Extremities, Pediatric Musculoskeletal Assessment of Upper/Lower Extremities, Joint Injections of Knee/Ankle, and Joint Injections of Shoulder/Wrist.

Our online Advanced Rheumatology Course, formerly the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant Postgraduate Rheumatology Training Program, continues to be successful with 235 new registrants and 121 graduates. The course is currently under revision, and we will revise three modules per year over the next six years. The modules will also be priced for individual sale, and we hope to broaden our reach beyond the nurse practitioner and physician’s assistant community. Also, we have begun work on a Fundamentals in Rheumatology Course. This online course will consist of five modules providing information on rheumatology, assessment, management, biologic infusion, and pre-authorization of medications. It is due for an online launch in 2012.

In addition, our Research and Practice Committees have worked diligently all year to provide online resources on outcomes measurement and practice tools for the membership. Check out the website at www.rheumatology.org to see what is available under practice management, clinical support, and patient resources.

To recognize those members who are excelling in the education of health professional students, the ARHP has added the Master Educator Award to its Mentor Award portfolio. This recognition will be presented with all ACR and ARHP awards during the Annual Scientific Meeting opening lecture, so don’t miss it!

Achievements in Collaboration

In the area of collaboration, the ARHP has been working with health professional members of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) to create educational sessions at the ARHP and EULAR meetings in 2010 and 2011. The November 10 session in Atlanta, “Patient Participation in Research,” will highlight our international colleagues’ work with patients in creating and performing research projects. We hope to continue working with our colleagues across the ocean to create additional annual meeting educational offerings.