The aim of RA therapy is to reduce disease activity, joint destruction, symptoms, and disability. The prevailing therapeutic approach is an aggressive pharmacological disease control, with readily available conventional synthetic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) in first line. The csDMARDs goes a long way towards reductions in disease activity, symptoms, and disability. However, if satisfactory disease control is not achieved by csDMARDS, addition of biologic medicines can be necessary.~With the efficacy of all these pharmacological options and the current view on Treat-to-Target (T2T), RA patients should have excellent prospects. However, despite the evidence to support a T2T strategy it is anticipated that many patients across various countries in Europe have active disease and suffer from increasing disability; this might be a consequence of bad access to optimal care, as well as possibly a lack of reimbursement of biological agents. Currently, the proposed T2T strategies are managed in the clinic by physicians, nurses and biometricians, which is expensive and time consuming for both patients and health care professionals (HCPs).~Telemonitoring and eHealth solutions for assessing patients with chronic illnesses as diabetes, asthma and hypertension have previously shown great advantages in better disease control and improvement of symptoms. A similar eHealth solution for patients with RA is expected to be advantageous both for patients and the health care system.~The current trial is designed to assess if an eHealth solution for homebased disease activity monitoring is superior to the standard clinical disease monitoring strategy with respect to T2T goals. The main research question is whether the effectiveness of home-based disease activity monitoring via a home-based (eHealth) intervention is superior to standard clinical disease activity assessment in obtaining and maintaining a low(er) disease activity in patients with RA.
The aim of this study is to explore whether the effectiveness of home-based disease activity monitoring via a home-based (eHealth) intervention is superior to standard clinical disease activity assessment in obtaining and maintaining a low(er) disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).