UW and Arthritis Foundation collaborating on several projects

Strong ties between the UW and the Arthritis Foundation are getting stronger with the election of a UW faculty member as chair of the Washington/Alaska Chapter’s Board of Directors and a number of new collaborative projects in the works.

Dr. Basia Belza, associate professor and vice chair of biobehavioral nursing and health systems, who has been a member of the chapter’s Board of Directors since 1992, became chair in January. She is also an adjunct associate professor of orthopaedics. One other UW faculty member also serves on the board: Dr. Frederick Matsen III, professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedics.

Basia Belza

Belza, a School of Nursing faculty member since 1991, researches understanding the mechanisms of fatigue in adults with chronic conditions and testing strategies to better manage it. She has been involved in developing, testing and determining the cost-effectiveness of exercise interventions to improve physical conditioning, enhance function and reduce fatigue.

One of her interests is increasing the presence of nursing and the impact of nursing scholarship in the field of rheumatology. She believes that nursing can play a pivotal role in improving care and outcomes for patients with chronic conditions. With that goal, she is currently president-elect of the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals, a division of the American College of Rheumatology, and is on the Board of Trustees for the national Arthritis Foundation. She is particularly proud of serving as co-editor of a multidisciplinary text, Clinical Care in the Rheumatic Diseases, first printed in 1996.

The Rheumatiod Arthritis Registry and Clinic at UW Medical Center-Roosevelt’s Bone and Joint Center is one of the existing collaborative projects with the Arthritis Foundation. The registry, developed by Matsen, keeps track of area patients, including information on their willingness to participate in research studies. Along with regular clinic services, the Bone and Joint Center has an extensive arthritis resource center, with both printed and computer-access information for patients and their families.

Another existing collaboration is an annual continuing education course for health professionals. This year’s course, Practical Approaches to the Treatment of Arthritis, is sponsored by UW continuing nursing education and continuing medical education, along with the Arthritis Foundation. It will be held May 10 at Valley Medical Center in Renton with several UW faculty members participating.

Belza also serves on the advisory board for a major grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Washington State Department of Health to collect better information on arthritis in the state and to target resources to serve people with arthritis. The grant is part of the National Arthritis Action Plan adopted by the CDC in 1999.

Arthritis, Belza notes, is a general term that covers over 100 rheumatic diseases. Many people think first of osteoarthritis, the degenerative joint condition that causes mobility problems for many older people. A number of factors may play a role in osteoarthritis, Belza says, including abnormal biomechanical properties of joint cartilage and/or excessive biomechanical loading.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic chronic disease characterized by an acute inflammatory response with joint swelling, stiffness and pain that can lead to irreversible joint damage. Yet another form of arthritis is the one children are diagnosed with, called juvenile arthritis. The Arthritis Foundation estimates that 285,000 children in the United States have some form of arthritis.

Belza is particularly enthusiastic about developing more projects that will link the evaluation capabilities of the academic realm with the community-service oriented efforts of the Arthritis Foundation. One example is a study led by Dr. Donald Patrick, professor of health services and director of the Center for Disability Policy and Research, that evaluated the results for patients who take the Arthritis Foundation’s warm water aquatic classes. The study has just been completed.

“This kind of study is a wonderful way for us to partner to address important clinical and cost questions,” she said. “We can learn what really works and the community can invest resources in proven services.”

The Arthritis Foundation has become increasingly involved in advocacy for people with the disease, Belza said. “We believe it’s important for us to have an impact on health systems and health policy, as well as on individuals,” she noted, pointing to a current campaign to get better funding for prescription medications. As new medications have become available, the issue of cost has emerged as a barrier for many people. The Arthritis Foundation now has a “message in a bottle” campaign to get national legislative attention focused on the cost of prescription medications.

The Washington/Alaska Chapter also provides a telephone helpline to connect people to information and resources: 1-800-542-0295. UW faculty or staff members who would like to volunteer should call the local chapter office at (206) 547-2707.

The national organization maintains a Web site, recently revamped, at http://www.arthritis.org

Claire Dietz