Integrating different perspectives to define a concept of comprehensive remission in rheumatoid arthritis: The SUMAR project

Introduction and objectives

The SUMAR project aimed to establish a consensus on the concept of remission in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that takes into account the different perspectives of patients, health care professionals and health care managers.

Materials and methods

The scientific committee comprised a rheumatologist who acted as a national coordinator, 4 rheumatologists, 1 primary care physician, 1 nurse, 2 hospital pharmacists, 2 health care managers and 1 member of a patient advocacy group. The study was undertaken from 2020 to 2021 in three phases: (1) analysis of several perspectives on remission in RA with the participation of 275 patients, 160 rheumatologists and 31 health care managers; (2) an integrative definition of remission, which included two multidisciplinary workshops with 11 and 12 participants; and (3) extension and dissemination with up to 200 participants in 7 regional multidisciplinary meetings.

Results

The concept of remission in the different settings and by the different stakeholders was heterogeneous. It was agreed that, in addition to inflammatory activity, remission should include pain and functionality as well as the duration of remission. For the participants, the definition of remission varied depending on the clinical scenario, without or with structural damage, seeking to “normalize” the outcomes in the former and avoid progression in the latter. The implementation of the concept of comprehensive remission was considered less feasible, and the main barriers to implementation were the lack of time for consultation and the variability in information technology systems across the different autonomous communities.

Discussion and conclusions

This definition of remission is not only based on the concept of the presence or absence of inflammatory activity based on existing indexes, but also includes variables directly reported by the patient that are related to their health and quality of life.