Outcome measures and classification criteria for the rheumatic diseases. A compilation of data from OMERACT (Outcome Measures for Arthritis Clinical Trials), ILAR (International League of Associations for Rheumatology), regional leagues and other groups

Extract

The International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR) has been meeting with the World Health Organization (WHO) on a regular basis to discuss issues of mutual interest. Over the last few years these meetings have focused on the development of outcome measures in the rheumatic diseases, principally driven through OMERACT (Outcome Measures for Arthritis Clinical Trials). OMERACT has now held five meetings addressing a number of important areas in rheumatology, including clinical and imaging outcome measures, health economics and drug safety. The advantage of the WHO/ILAR Task Force Meeting has been to ratify these measures and allow them to be promulgated widely around the world.

This paper summarizes discussions which took place at the Sixth Joint WHO/ILAR Task Force Meeting on Rheumatic Diseases which was held in Geneva on 16 January 2000. This meeting reviewed a number of outcome measures for rheumatic diseases that had been developed over the past few years under the aegis of OMERACT. The WHO/ILAR meeting formally endorsed these outcome measures and acknowledged them as the gold standard for outcome measures in these conditions.