10 March 2023
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The National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit (NEIAA) has been instrumental in ensuring that people with inflammatory arthritis receive timely diagnosis and treatment. Through the commitment of professionals and patients across the rheumatology community, NEIAA is the largest outpatient audit in the UK.
NEIAA data has supported improvements in EIA care across England and Wales. We want to maintain that momentum whilst reducing the burden of audit participation on clinical staff.
From 1 April, you will see some key changes to the audit:
- As Year 4 data suggests there will be a 65% reduction in data burden, the audit will be focusing only on confirmed cases of EIA at the point of diagnosis. (Rheumatoid arthritis, Psoriatic arthritis, Axial spondyloarthropathy, Undifferentiated inflammatory arthritis)
- We have reduced the number of data items required by the audit by 32%.
- 5 questions removed from the Demographics section of the dataset
- 7 questions removed from the Referral and Diagnosis section of the dataset
- 5 questions removed from the Clinical Baseline section of the dataset (only to be completed for patients eligible for follow-up)
- 5 questions removed from the 3-month follow-up section of the dataset (only to be completed for patients eligible for follow-up)
- 12-month follow-up section has been removed
The audit platform will provide easier access to charting of data to inform your own quality improvement work. The functionality will be improved and more straightforward navigation will make it easier to find resources for improvement work.
We continue to strive to achieve early and effective treatment of inflammatory arthritis in the best way possible. We are encouraging teams to start thinking about how they will identify people eligible for the audit.
The NEIAA dataset reduction is a positive step towards ensuring that clinicians can continue to provide the best possible care to their patients as well as engage with the audit. Over the coming year, we will update you on further incremental changes to the audit, which aim to spread the success in EIA to other rheumatic conditions.
The audit team can be contacted at audit@rheumatology.org.uk with any queries or feedback.