Éducation thérapeutique en rhumatologie : l'exemple de la polyarthrite rhumatoïde

Patient education for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) represents a large part of self-management programs in rheumatic diseases in France. Due to treat-to-target strategies and the increasing use of biologics, patient education is recognized and recommended in RA management. Several French programs have recently showed positive results, although assessment of self-management approaches is still controversial. The programs encounter difficulties, better known through surveys by the Section for Therapeutic patient education of the French Society of Rheumatology: gap between supply and needs, optimizing patients' educational care, difficulties in enrolling patients, limited communication among health professionals (HPs) in charge. Lack of time for performing education and lack of recognition can cause fatigue and stress among HPs. Perspectives should include doctors' and HPs' training to the patient-centered care approach, developing research on targeted or stratified education strategies and the development of web-based patient education.