RheumPAC Helps ACR ‘Stand Up for What’s Important’

The ACR RheumPAC Committee’s role in advocating for rheumatology clinicians and patients cannot be understated, says new committee chair Kaitlyn Brittan, MD, clinical rheumatologist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and assistant professor in its Division of Rheumatology.

Dr. Brittan

“RheumPAC is non-partisan and really great at investing in people who really stand up for what’s important for rheumatologists and our patients, so I would encourage those of us in the field to learn about and consider investing in RheumPAC,” she says.

The Rheumatologist asked Dr. Brittan to explain how RheumPAC does its work and the ways ACR/ARP members can help.

The Rheumatologist (TR): What would you like people to know about RheumPAC?

Dr. Brittan: RheumPAC is the critical financial support for our ACR advocacy efforts at the federal level. As a nonprofit, the ACR cannot donate money to politicians or their campaigns, and so a little more than a decade ago, RheumPAC was begun to give us a way to collect donations from members of the College to support legislators who are champions of our causes—such as research funding, reimbursement or timely access to care—and are in the position to make changes on the Hill. It’s the way that we open doors to talk about what the issues are and how they ultimately affect patients.

TR: You became involved in advocacy early in your career and have continued now as a physician. Why?

Dr. Brittan: I can see the critical role advocacy plays in ensuring that patients are served well. A lot of policy decisions that govern our medical practices are made by bureaucrats who don’t know what it’s like to be in a physician’s office, and as a result, we have constraints placed on the way we practice that can hinder our ability to make the right decisions for the patients we see.

I think there’s an ever-growing and largely unmet need for physicians to participate in advocacy. We obviously are very busy in our day-to-day lives, and so it’s really easy to hope that somebody else will fill that role. But I think understanding the importance of advocacy not as an add-on, but as a core principle of our practice, is paramount to that. For me, it doesn’t feel like it is something I do “in addition.” Rather, I feel like it is part of my role as a clinician to take care of patients.