More than 10 million Americans suffer from knee osteoarthritis (OA), the most common cause of disability in the United States. While there is currently no cure for knee OA, there are a variety of treatment options, including acetaminophen, NSAIDs, and steroids. Which interventions work best? Raveendhara Bannuru, MD, a PhD student in the Clinical and Translational Science Program at the Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, is conducting research to find out.
Rather than analyzing treatment options individually relative to a placebo or other control, Dr. Bannuru and his mentor Timothy McAlindon, MD, MPH are examining multiple interventions and ranking their efficacy relative to one another. This comparative effectiveness approach will provide critical information to help patients and their healthcare providers determine the treatments that will work best for them.
Since knee OA often leads to missed work days, early retirement, and expensive surgical procedures, Dr. Bannuru and Dr. McAlindon’s research is likely to have significant cost-savings implications.
To learn more about Dr. Bannuru and Dr. McAlindon’s analysis comparing the efficacy of different knee OA interventions, read their findings, featured in Nature Reviews Rheumatology.