The PCORnet Autoimmune and Systemic Inflammatory Syndromes Collaborative Research Group (ASIS CRG) invites you to an ArthritisPower hosted  free informational webinar on Tuesday, April 30 from 6 to 7 p.m. EDT. “Better Understanding Treatment Benefits and Risk: How ‘Health Numeracy’ Can Help”, webinar will be presented by Alexa Simon Meara, MD, MS, Assistant Professor at the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Managing a chronic autoimmune or systemic inflammatory disease is complex and requires good communication and understanding from both patients and physicians to make shared decisions around treatment. Care plans and treatment regimens are often complicated and require multiple medications to be taken, in different dosages, at different times throughout the day.

Understanding numeric information – known as numeracy, like literacy – is important for patients for many different reasons. Patients must understand basic health information about probability (i.e., the “chance” of certain outcomes) in order to use data in the context of their own health care.

So how can we better understand quantitative health information to manage our own health care as individual patients? What do concepts like absolute risk, probability, and relative risk actually mean – and how can patients use these concepts in decision making about their own health care, including answering questions like which medication to use, or how to assess the risk of side effects versus the benefits of getting better?

During this webinar, Dr. Meara will discuss the importance of health numeracy and how it can inform practical decision making in the management and treatment of your disease.