The National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit (NEIAA) collects information on all new patients over the age of 16 years seen in specialist rheumatology departments with confirmed early inflammatory arthritis, Connective Tissue Disease (CTD) and Systemic Vasculitis in England and Wales.
This is an opportunity to contribute to a national study which will shape the scope of inflammatory arthritis treatment in the future, and help to improve referrals and treatment for the next generation. We also hope your help will allow us (rheumatology doctors and nurses) to better understand the impact of this disease.
We have asked your rheumatology doctor to provide us with information about your care over the first 3 months after you have been diagnosed. This includes details on:
The time it took your GP to refer you to a rheumatologist;
The time it took your rheumatology team to see you;
The time it took to get you on treatment;
How active your disease is at each visit;
We would like your help to find out how arthritis is affecting your life. We have a series of questions on this website that we will be asking you to respond to five times over the first 12 months – when you are diagnosed, after 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and then at one year after your diagnosis.
Your answers to the questions will help us understand how your department is helping patients, and how they compare to other hospitals in the NHS.
You do not have to complete all questions at once. You can save your answers to some of the questions and finish the rest later. You can contact your rheumatology department to help you with the questionnaires if you need any help.
If you have any technical problems with the website please contact the NEIA audit team on audit@rheumatology.org.uk. If you forget to complete your questionnaire, we will send you an email as a reminder.
Patients have helped deliver this project from its outset. We have tried to keep questions as short as possible, and they should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete.
If you would like more information on your diagnosed condition, please look at the support section of our website, where you will find details of many patient charities.
We would really appreciate it if you can complete your questionnaires as soon after receipt of your email as possible.
The information you supply through this website is treated as highly confidential. Your answers will be available only to your clinical team and the BSR. The website is managed by Net Solving, and is fully encrypted to NHS standards. Analysis of results is done by King’s College London. No personal information will ever be shared externally without your explicit consent. For more information please check out our privacy notice here in English and Welsh.
This audit has special legal permissions (Section 251 approval) to collect confidential information without patient consent. However it is not exempt from the national data opt-out (NDO). Therefore, clinicians will have to check a patient's NDO status before submitting any confidential patient information. Wales does not operate a national data opt-out programme, but all patients in both England and Wales are still able to opt out of individual audits, such as this one. You can read more about the national data opt-out (NDO) here [SG5 Link to NDO info sheet - TBC].
