Dynamic new APLAR

Abstract

The many efforts of our predecessor have rendered APLAR with steady growth during the past 40 years. Despite difficult circumstances related to an absolute lack of rheumatology subspecialists, APLAR has been successful in organizing an APLAR congress every 4 years. The most distinguishing endeavor yet has been the successful execution of the Community Oriented Program for Control of Rheumatic Disorders (COPCORD) project that was commenced in 1983. The COPCORD was created in collaboration with the WHO and ILAR. The project’s objective was recognition, prevention and control of rheumatic disease in two-thirds of the developing countries worldwide. The first step in realizing this objective took place in 2006 with reporting of the prevalence of rheumatic diseases and the identification of related risk factors. The second component of the project which involves education of primary care physicians, paramedical professionals and the community, as well as the third that aims to improve health care and environmental etiologic research of rheumatic disease still remains to be realized. However, their immediate execution has faced impediments due to the diverse cultural, economic, and medical standards of the Asian region. The opening of a new chapter in rheumatic disease treatment due to rapid advancements in immunology and molecular biology and the attendant advent of biologic agents, have put APLAR in a position to be more innovative and active than the past. In the past, centered on Japan and Australia, Asia’s rheumatology has developed greatly due to their contributions. During the last 10 years, Korea, China, India and countries in the Middle East, as well as almost all of Asia, have joined in the rapid flow of current times, and thus awareness as well as active research of rheumatic diseases has intensified. In accordance with these trends, the successfully executed APLAR biannual Congress that began in 2002 will be accompanied by the APLAR symposium starting year 2010, making APLAR conferences an annual event paralleling EULAR and ACR. These changes will make available an arena that will quench academic thirst and discover new talent among the young and capable APLAR members, which are rapidly evolving in APLAR member national societies. The declaration of the ‘Bone and Joint Decade (BJD) for 2000–2010’ by the World Health Organization (WHO) has made evident worldwide the detrimental effects in finance, national economy and quality of life and the importance of rheumatic diseases.1 Due to the BJD declaration, it has been recognized that rheumatic diseases are associated with not only medical but also social and economic issues.2-4 The APLAR executive committee in conjunction with next year’s end of BJD, began the ‘Post BJD Arthritis Campaign’ in Singapore on September 11, 2009. Financially sponsored by Wyeth, this campaign, first commenced by APLAR, was designated as the ‘Every Day Counts’ initiative and is a move to diagnose and treat rheumatic diseases early on. The ‘Every Day Counts’ initiative has been developed to highlight the fact that for every day a patient with rheumatoid arthritis remains undiagnosed and untreated, they pay an unnecessary personal price and that society and communities pay the price through increased unemployment and welfare payments, reduced taxes and greater healthcare spending on extended hospital stays. The objective of the ‘Every Day Counts’ campaign is as follows: Encourage doctors to diagnose and treat RA early Encourage early referral of patients with suspected RA to rheumatologists Increase awareness among governments of the need to treat RA Influence undergraduate and postgraduate medical school curricula to emphasize rheumatoid arthritis. Unlike any period in the past, APLAR is moving dynamically at an unprecedented pace toward a new era. During my APLAR presidency (2008–2010), the before-mentioned active annual congresses and post-BJD arthritis campaign, ‘Every Day Counts’, will be grounds for several missions. The number of rheumatology trainees or junior fellows will be increased and heightened emphasis will be laid on not only clinical, but also basic, research. In addition, they will be presented with information on prominent laboratories and clinical centers in Asia that provide more effective training and will be introduced to rheumatology trainees and/or junior fellows. Encourage and support attendance at major rheumatology meetings in the Asia-Pacific area. He APLAR office creates a number of travelling scholarships and investigator awards to enable young promising clinicians and researchers. Setting up a research and educational fund to support promising scientists in APLAR. Encourage more submissions of scientific papers to promote the Iinternational Journal of rheumatic Diseases. This newly transforming APLAR is making additional advances through its young and capable members. Due to APLAR’s arthritis campaign, an arena for collaborative works of many talented rheumatologists is being realized. With these able rheumatologists, ‘The New APLAR’ will advance with energetic strides into the future.