Rebecca Grainger

Rebecca is a consultant rheumatologist at the Wellington Regional Rheumatology Unit (Hutt Valley DHB) and a senior lecturer in the Rehabilitation teaching and Research Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Otago Wellington. She graduated from University of Otago, undertook rheumatology training in Melbourne and returned to New Zealand in 2005. She completed her PhD examining inflammatory mechanisms in gout at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in Wellington. 

Rebecca�s clinical work focuses on assessment and management of inflammatory arthritis, scleroderma and gout. She is passionate about patient-focused care and engaging with primary care to provide the highest quality collaborative care for people with arthritis. She has contributed in development and delivery of the �Ten topics in Rheumatology� education series and an on-line learning programme for a GPSI (GPs with a special interest) programme for rheumatology. 

Rebecca�s academic interests in include outcome measures, non-pharmacology management of musculoskeletal disease, complementary and alternative medicine in rheumatology and use of new technology in patient care. She shares her teaching time with undergraduate medical students and postgraduate health professionals, aiming to provide them the skills and knowledge to provide high quality, evidence-based care for people with musculoskeletal conditions. 

Although passionate about her work, Rebecca�s time is mainly committed to her family � husband Ewan and 5-year-old twins Daniel and Sarah-Kate. Outside home and work Rebecca tries to keep fit, see her friends, read (the Luminaries is still on the list) and drink coffee, lots of coffee. 

 

 

Recognition and Treatment of Inflammatory Arthritis in Family Practice
Concurrent Workshop Repeated
Saturday, 16 August 2014 Start 11:00am Duration: 55mins Plenary 
Start 12:05pm Duration: 55mins Plenary 
Inflammatory arthritides, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the spondyloarthropathies (SpA), are common and typically progressive without treatment. In the last 15 years a dramatic shift in the treatment paradigm for inflammatory arthritis has occurred. New therapeutics, targeted treatment strategies and better empiric data with which to guide treatment decisions means a goal of �no symptoms or signs of disease on treatment�, or therapeutic remission, is realistic for many patients. To achieve this, inflammatory arthritis must be diagnosed early and effective treatment initiated. Potentially complex treatment regimens may be required to achieve therapeutic remission. To aim for best outcomes for patients, rheumatologists are dependant on patients being referred early in the disease course and for patients to be supported while using multiple therapeutic agents.

In this talk, practical guidelines to assessment and referral of patients who potentially have inflammatory arthritis will be presented, with case examples for discussion. An introduction to management strategies for RA and SpA will be outlined, with key points relevant to management of these patients in primary care emphasised.

There has never been a better time to be a rheumatologist, or a patient of a rheumatologist, and I would like to share the reasons for this with you.