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The Nebraska Chapter has funded various research projects. In 2005, the chapter provided $100,000 to of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Genome Project. Additionally, the chapter funded a project at UNMC for $75,000.
In 2007, the Nebraska Chapter made a $10,000 contribution to the Voluntary Research Fund for rheumatoid arthritis research as part of a matching funds challenge.
Dr. Kaleb Michaud , at the University of Nebraska Medical Center was awarded in 2008 “A New Investigator Grant” funded by the Nebraska Chapter. The chapter will provide funding for $50,000 per year for three years, a total of $150,000. Information on the project follows:
Kaleb Michaud, PhD
The impact of total joint replacement in rheumatoid arthritis
University of Nebraska
Award Period: July 2008-June 2011
Total joint replacement (TJR) is a commonly performed surgery in the U.S. for patients with end-stage arthritis including those with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA, also called ‘degenerative arthritis’). With an aging population and a growing population of arthritis sufferers, the use of this surgery is expected to grow substantially over the next twenty years. To date, there have been almost no studies examining TJR outcomes specifically in patients with RA. This dearth is important because up to one-fourth of patients with RA will undergo TJR in their lifetime. Complications of this surgery can include infections and cardiovascular events, problems that are already known to complicate the course of RA even in the absence of TJR. Thus, a better understanding of the impact of TJR – both in terms of its effects on a patient’s quality of life and overall burden of costs – is needed. The present proposal will examine the impact of TJR in the context of RA versus OA (the latter being the most common indication for TJR). We anticipate that TJR, while an effective intervention in RA, will be associated with a higher rate of complications and greater monetary costs when compared to its use in OA. The investigators will first determine patterns and predictors of short-term (30-day) and long-term outcomes following TJR in patients with RA vs. OA (year 1). The investigators will then conduct a detailed ‘cost-effectiveness’ analysis, to determine whether RA (vs. OA) is associated with higher costs (year 2). TJR outcomes and associated costs will be examined using both the Veterans Affairs (VA) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP, Aim 1) and the National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases (NDB, Aim 2), datasets readily available to the applicant. In addition, a major focus of the study will be to examine the impact of this surgery on patient reported outcomes including quality of life and pain. The investigators will use well-defined statistical approaches to examine the associations of interest. They will also explore the association of specific RA treatments (i.e. steroid therapies and recently available treatments) with the outcomes of interest. These efforts are an extension of previous efforts of the applicant and his mentors.
