Combinatietherapie bij reumatoide artritis

"RAND Europe was requested by the Committee on Policy Research concerning Drugs and Medical Aids (Commissie Beleidsonderzoek Genees- en Hulpmiddelen--BOGH) of the Dutch Health Care Insurance Board (College voor Zorgverzekeringen--CVZ) to develop a method to prioritize the need for research on pharmaceutical combinations. The pilot study for the method was to examine combination disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). If successful, the method could be employed by the BOGH to advise the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport about priorities for investigating combination drug treatments of other diseases. In response, RAND Europe adapted a validated tool for assessing medical effectiveness, the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method to identify promising combination DMARD treatments for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) whose value is not believed to be well-established by scientific evidence. In this summary, we will briefly describe RA and then present the methods, the results, and the conclusions of the study."--English summary, P. xi.