Dr. Vivian Bykerk
Dr. Vivian Bykerk, on staff at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and an Associate Professor of Medicine (Department of Medicine) at Weill Cornell, presented advances in arthritis research at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professions. As a lead investigator and rheumatologist at HSS, she conducted a study on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that utilized data from the Canadian early ArThritis Cohort (CATCH), for which she is the Chair and Director. Nineteen clinical sites in Canada were involved with the study which collected data on 1,800 patients. The message of the new findings was: Delaying treatment for RA can greatly increase the likelihood of worse function at two years.
"Unfortunately, I have seen too many people delay effective treatment approaches and they come back a year later very disappointed, often with joint damage that could have been prevented," says Dr. Bykerk.