Highly Commended
Treat to Target
Summary of work
"The most important advance in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the Treat to Target (T2T) initiative: a seismic shift has occurred in the management approach to RA."
Andrew Östör, Consultant Rheumatologist
Published in 2010, Treat to Target (T2T) recommendations represent an important advance in rheumatoid arthritis management. A previous education programme, led by a UK T2T Steering Committee, to drive awareness of T2T was awarded the 2012 Communiqué Award for Best Professional Education Initiative. However, the critical outcome for T2T is true adoption in clinical practice.
Our customer insights demonstrated high levels of T2T awareness, but revealed barriers faced by rheumatologists preventing implementation of T2T in practice. We developed a highly interactive ‘implementation’ programme to address these challenges. Underpinned by an evidence-based model for changing clinician behaviour, we developed two UK national meetings – T2T CONNECT and T2T Summit – and a peer-to-peer Experience Exchange.
A parallel 50 centre UK T2T audit measuring the impact of T2T in clinical practice released interim data in August 2013 and demonstrated a positive impact of T2T awareness. Following our programme and T2T meetings in September 2013, a 3-month follow-up survey showed a clear improvement compared with the audit findings in implementation of T2T.
Judges’ comments
This is a great example of a programme successfully evolving into a service within a defined clinical area. The content is inclusive, adaptive and self-generative and it’s refreshing to see investment being made in an audit process that allows the programme to be refined so that it can continue to have a high level of impact.
