Abstract
We established the Shizuoka Rheumatism Network in 2007. The network was made to improve medical circumstances for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Shizuoka prefecture which has a population of 3.8 million. The purpose of the network is to give patients easy access to information on RA, to encourage better corporation between hospitals and clinics, to improve the clinical skills of physicians,and to explore new findings about Japanese RA patients. As of April 2009, the network’s membership consisted of 53 medical workers including 43 physicians and 10 comedicals, and 148 patients. The network website provides useful information concerning RA, including information from participating institutions, new medical information about RA, antidisaster measures etc. Annual meetings and open symposiums for patients are held on a regular basis. Several lecture materials about RA for patients were made by the members and distributed to the patient members for free. Through this activity, we have already encountered some problems, namely, difficulty in increasing the number of participating medical institutions, difference in motivation towards the network activities between members, weak financial basis, competition with other similar activities, receiving many personal inquiries from patients, and tendency toward doctor-oriented activity. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the significance of the activity for the future. In spite of these problems, the Shizuoka Rheumatism Network has already managed to help some of the RA patients in this region. We would like to receive comments and questions from readers of this article. The website ishttp://www.hama-med.ac.jp/rheumatism/index.html, and the email address is srn＠hama-med.ac.jp.
