Researchers at the University of Alabama Birmingham are on the verge of medical development that will change the way people are diagnosed and treated for rheumatoid arthritis.
Personalized medicine.
That's the incentive for these researchers blazing a trail in arthritis studies.
They are working on a project at UAB to establish a database that would help rheumatologists diagnose and treat their patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
"I think the practicing physicians are very anxious to get markers of treatment response so they will have a rational way to choose among the drugs and help individual patients to get treated in the most efficient and cost effective way possible," said rheumatologist and researcher Dr. Lou Dridges
This is incredibly important for R.A. patients, where timing and treatment can mean the difference in mobility and high medical costs.
"It will mean a lot to the individual patient to not have to go through the trial and error process," said Dr. Bridges.
The outlook for the average patient with rheumatoid arthritis has dramatically improved over the last ten years.
Researchers like Dr. Lou Bridges call it a revolution, seeing new, effective drugs hit the market.
And this new database will only up the ante, but something this short of extraordinary takes massive funding.
There is still no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, but this database will push researchers closer to wiping out the disease.
Giving physicians the opportunity to help their patients' first symptoms of arthritis become their last.
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