Highlights of the site include abstracts, a regionalized physician finder, links to academic sites, journals, and foundations, assessment forms for the patient and the physician, and annual meeting information. The Arthritis Foundation site offers programs that can help people with arthritis have easier and less painful lives. In the past 10 years, strides have been made in identifying genetic factors associated with many of the more than 100 types of arthritis and related musculoskeletal diseases. Scientists are beginning to isolate and identify the genes associated with arthritis. It may be possible to develop gene therapies or genetic vaccines to help modulate or even cure certain types of arthritis.
New treatments continue to be developed.
A number of these are already in human testing to obtain FDA approval for general use. Some show great promise. A parallel, but no less important, advance is the revolutionary manner in which the Internet is empowering and inspiring patients with arthritis to manage their own disease. It's all at my fingertips. That makes a difference.