Is RABBIT a clinical trial?
No, RABBIT is a purely observational study. This means that your treatment is in no way influenced by whether or not you as a patient are included in RABBIT. Even after inclusion in RABBIT, the therapy of your rheumatoid arthritis will continue to be planned by your rheumatologist in consultation with you. Therapy changes, changes, pauses and therapy endings are merely documented and reported to the RABBIT headquarters together with the data on your course of the disease and evaluated there.
The most important difference to the clinical studies is that you are not randomly assigned any medication, but the therapy is chosen based on your clinical condition.
What are the advantages of participating in RABBIT?
By participating in RABBIT, you will neither have advantages nor disadvantages. But: The more patients participate in RABBIT, the better statements can be made about the safety and efficacy of the different rheumatism therapies. This is of interest to you and all other rheumatism patients.
Do I only get my medication if I participate in RABBIT?
No. Your doctor will decide together with you. Your doctor will decide together with you which therapy is best for you and will prescribe it independently of RABBIT.
Should I also participate in RABBIT if my rheumatism therapy has been discontinued or changed?
Yes, absolutely. All patients who are once included in RABBIT should be observed for at least 5 years, but better still 10 years. Changes in therapy are often due to lack of efficacy or undesirable events, which are only recorded and can therefore be included in our safety data if the documentation is continued. An important point that we are also investigating is the course of the disease after discontinuation of therapy. For this it is essential that documentation continues even after discontinuation of a therapy.
Why do I have to answer multiple questions in some questionnaires?
The patient questionnaire comprises various measuring instruments (questionnaires) such as the FFbH (Functional Questionnaire Hannover) or the SF36 (Short Form Health Questionnaire). Some of these measuring instruments contain similar questions. However, they only retain their scientifically proven validity if all questions are taken into account and no question is omitted. Unfortunately, therefore, we cannot change the overlap.
Is my participation terminated when I change doctor?
No, because we want to achieve the 5 or 10 year observation period even if you change doctors. Please talk to your new rheumatologist about whether he is ready to continue the observation. If you give us the address of your new rheumatologist, we will contact him ourselves.
Where did you get my phone number?
In the declaration of consent you enter your address and your telephone number. This data is stored securely in a steel cabinet. Only if we do not receive any questionnaires from you for a very long time and your rheumatologist knows nothing about your whereabouts may we contact you by post or telephone. This serves above all to ensure that we do not miss any important events. Because theoretically it could be that all patients, who have left the observation, suffer from the same disease or even died of it. If we did not investigate this, we would not be able to protect other patients from it – but this is one of our central tasks.
How do I find a rheumatologist in my environment?
One possibility is to search via the Ärztekammern or kassenärztlichen Vereinigungen physicians of the respective federal state. It is also convenient to search for a rheumatologist using the Practice and Clinic Guide. Enter your place of residence or postcode in the search mask.
Berufsverband Deutscher Rheumatologen e.V.
Berufsverband Deutscher Rheumatologen e.V.
