Patient advocacy and arthritis: moving forward

Patient advocacy is based an the premise that people have the right to make their own choices about their health care Personal advocacy is centred on the experiential expertise of the individual affected by the condition, whereas group advocacy is grounded on patient-centred strategies and actions. The first patient advocacy groups for arthritis were set up over 20 years ago in the USA and have subsequently spread to many other countries. This paper discusses the growth and impact of personal advocacy as well as recent developments in group advocacy in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, and North America, in terms of arthritis awareness, research, corporate partnerships, and the Bone and Joint Decade global initiative. Keywords Arthritis/prevention and control/therapy; Patient advocacy; Patient rights; Patient participation; Self care; Self-help groups; Physician-patient relations; Intersectoral cooperation (source MeSH, NLM). Mots cles Arthrite/prevention et controle/therapeutique: Defense malade; Droits du patient; Participation malade; Auto-traitement: Groupe soutien social; Relation medecin-malade: Cooperation intersectorielle (source: MeSH, INSERM). Palabras clave Artritis/prevencion y control/terapia; Defensa del paciente; Derechos del paciente; Participacion del paciente; Autocuidado; Grupos de autoayuda; Relaciones medico-paciente; Cooperacion intersectorial (fuente: DeCS, BIREME). [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]
Introduction Patient advocacy, which goes hand-in-hand with patient empowerment and patient education, is a fundamental concept within the current movement of health care reform (1). Over the past 20 years, [...]