People living with arthritis often develop practical solutions, workarounds, and strategies to remain independent in daily life, but these ideas are rarely connected, shared, evaluated, or integrated into healthcare, research, technology, and policy. Building the...
Arthritis affects over six million people in Canada. It is one of the most common long-term health problems. It can make everyday tasks hard. It can also lead to disability, especially when places are not accessible. Right now, we don’t know if one assistive device or...
Based on the September 16th, 2025 webinar, this resource was developed to offer a beginner's guide to becoming a patient partner. Links mentioned in the infographic can be found here as well: CRA Decision Tool for COVID-19 VaccinationCIHR Patient Engagement...
On September 16, CAPA hosted the Building Patient Partner Skills in Pre-Clinical & Clinical Research webinar. The session explored how patients can engage in both pre-clinical research and clinical practice guidelines, featuring presentations from Drs. Manoj Lalu...
Included here is a collection of resources that date back to when the Canadian Arthritis Network, and to which a number of CAPA members contributed.
CAPA believes that the lived experience provided by individuals living with a disease is critical – and participating in research activities helps ensure this voice is heard. CAPA participated in the development of 2 presentations that support patient involvement in research…
We are pleased to welcome and announce that we have recruited nine patient partners to the introductory training program and thirteen patient partners to the intermediate / advanced training program. We launched these training programs during the summer of 2023 with...
This new cohort have received formal and informal training to support them in being a patient partner in research. You can learn more about this capacity building training program by reading this blog post, now available on the Canadian Institutes of Health Research –...
Get to know CAPA’s first Patient Partners Cohort!
CAPA believes that the lived experience provided by individuals living with a disease is critical - and participating in research activities helps ensure this voice is heard. CAPA participated in the development of 2 presentations that support patient involvement in...
This website about clinical trials (itstartswithme.ca) was developed with input from patients and caregivers who have participated in a clinical trial or have had a loved one participate in a clinical trial and by people who work in clinical trials and research, including 3 members of CAPA’s Steering Committee.
You have heard about clinical trials, but are unsure about what they are, and what it means to participate. This infographic has been developped by Clinical Trials Ontario to help navigate. It provides an explanation of what clinical trials are, the...
Clinical trials are a key part of the research process. If you’re thinking about participation in a clinical trial, CAPA encourages you to read up on clinical trials and make a decision that is right for you. Below are some resources to help get you started where CAPA has been involved.
The Research team at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health & Society, University of Toronto Scarborough and Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, led by Lesley A. Tarasoff, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow is sharing...
Knowledge Transfer and Exchange (Dr. Tara Packham, McMaster University) The School of Rehabilitation Sciences (SRS) and School of Nursing at McMaster University offer a joint course in 'Knowledge Transfer and Exchange'. All PhD students in the SRS are...
The Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance is pleased to be presenting two posters at the EULAR 2026 Congress (European Congress of Rheumatology) taking place June 3–6 in London, UK. CAPA’s Managing Director, Laurie Proulx, is attending the conference and presenting two...
CAPA's Managing Director Laurie Proulx presented at the Canadian Society for Immunology annual meeting (April 26-26, 2026) in the community-based discussion section of the event.
CAPA's Managing Director Laurie Proulx presented in a panel discussion at Canada's Drug Agency (CDA) 2026 Symposium on April 22, 2026. The session's topic was Integrating Patient Perspectives and Evolving Patient Input in HTA and Laurie's speaker notes can be found...
CAPA Board members Jenny Lorca and Therese Lane participated in and presented a poster at the 46th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Canadian Pain Society on May 2, 2026. Their poster presentation, Meaningful Patient Partner Engagement in Research, highlighted the...
CAPA President Linda Wilhelm will be attending the 2026 CRA Annual Scientific Meeting in Halifax on April 16-19, and presenting two posters on behalf of the organization: “Hacking Arthritis: Innovation and Adaptation in Daily Life” and “In Their Own Words: Patient Experiences with Patient Support Programs”.
Lucy Kovalova-Woods, CAPA Board member, presented a poster on meaningful patient partner engagement in clinical trials at the Clinical Trials Symposium on February 17, 2026, highlighting key principles of accessibility, reciprocity and operational integration in research.
This November, CAPA's President, Linda Wilhelm, and board members Jenny Lorca and Therese Lane attended a meeting with the Chronic Pain Network (CPN). Linda presented her work co-developing MPaCT, a new assessment tool for pain. Jenny and Therese are both on CPN...
This presentation was developed and delivered by Laurie Proulx, Managing Director of the Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance which draws on her lived experience growing up with juvenile arthritis and her experience in contributing patient perspectives to...
This presentation was delivered by CAPA at the Knowledge Translation Summer Institute (2017).
By: Annette McKinnon I teamed up with Canadian Spondylitis Association President, Michael Mallinson, for a visit to our Member of Parliament Nathaniel Erskine-Smith. We are in the same riding and are both acquainted with him. We did not want to wait until too late in...
The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) held an e-Congress this year and we were invited to do a presentation on our #ArthritisAtWork social media campaign. The campaign engaged the international community on the EULAR #Time2Work campaign. It was co-hosted by...
CAPA is participating in the upcoming CADTH Symposium on Tuesday, November 2, 2021 at 10:00-4:00 pm EDT. Our President, Linda Wilhelm, Vice-President Dawn Richards and 2nd Vice-President Laurie Proulx are presenting on and participating in the panel discussions on...
Natasha Trehan, founder of Take a Pain Check Foundation, will be presenting a virtual patient perspectives poster at the American College of Rheumatology on Saturday, November 12th. Read our poster “Patients raising awareness for patients: A collaborative partnership...
By: Linda Wilhelm As October 2014 was winding down, members of the Canadian Arthritis community, including the entire Board of The Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance, gathered in Toronto for the 2nd Annual Arthritis Alliance of Canada (AAC) Conference and Research...
We are pleased that many people with arthritis involved with CAPA will be presenting at various workshops at the Canadian Rheumatology Association Annual Scientific Meeting. If you are attending the meeting, please consider attending the following workshops which...
CAPA’s very own Laurie Proulx presented with researchers, patient leaders, and rheumatologists at this year’s Canadian Rheumatology Association annual meeting.
CAPA's Board Member Therese Lane, a patient advocate living with Arthritis and Fibromyalgia for 25 years, presented the results of the CAPA #ArthritisThenNow campaign "ArthritisThenNow: Reflecting on treatment changes in inflammatory arthritis“ at the poster session...
CAPA's Board member Emily Sirotich took part in the recent All-Virtual ACR Convergence 2020 Meeting on November 5-9, 2020, having submitted a number of abstracts and provided poster presentations as part of The COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance (GRA) Patient...
CAPA President, Linda Wilhelm, attended the meeting and took part in many different activities. She made a presentation at the Canadian Arthritis Research Conference on arthritis pain and delivered a poster presentation on how we have advocated and supported people living in pain through the Opioid Crisis.
CAPA Vice-President, Laurie Proulx, presented the patient perspective at a regional consultation for the National Pain Taskforce. You can also write to your Federal Minister of Health to express your support for this government priority by using a letter template we...
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