1/ In case you missed it @ewa_roos gave a paradigm-changing talk at #CARC2021 yesterday on #OA. Thread

The title is a pretty good indicator of what was to come.

2/ The first question asked us to think about what #OA means to us as researchers/clinicians & what it means to patients (and maybe even healthcare administrators/funders)

Spoiler alert - it is not the same thing

3/ This reminded us that #OA is both a disease (pathology) AND an illness (the impact a condition has on individuals & on society).

Different people think of #OA in different ways & often in the way they have been conditioned to think of it

4/ As far as the disease is concerned, we DO NOT have a cure & there are inherent challenges to finding one. Some challenges may be very difficult to overcome.

Despite that, efforts to find a cure for #OA are important & should continue

5/ In contrast, we DO HAVE effective treatments (exercise-therapy & education-based) for #OA illness. The @GLADCanada is one example.

While we wait for a cure, we MUST IMPLEMENT & provide EQUITABLE ACCESS to these treatments & reduce the burden of #OA illness

6/ TAKE HOME MESSAGE

Critically appraise your definition of #OA when you design studies, when you allocate funding $$, when you design interventions - Are you targeting the disease or illness? Does that align with the persons we are aiming to impact?