154 Friday, 10 June 2016 Scientific Abstracts quality of life for people with rheumatic disease and ultimately prevent the onset of rheumatic disease and its consequences. The fund distributes about 20 million Swedish krona yearly. In 2015 the Swedish Rheumatism Association published a report on the research that is financed by their fund. Objectives: The report had several objectives 1) to increase the awareness of the Swedish Rheumatism Association’s function as a funder of research 2) to interest decision makers in different parts of society in the field 3) to be used for fundraising. Methods: The Swedish Rheumatism Association worked together with a content agency (OTW, Stockholm, Sweden) in the production of the report. The report was based around six major areas of research, rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease, pain, osteoarthritis and life style. Each theme contained a number of articles on different projects that the Swedish Rheumatism Association has helped to fund. The different articles were written by, or in collaboration with, the principal investigator. Results: The report contains 18 articles on research. It addition, it contains four cases where four patients tell their story. The report was printed and first released to the public during a research seminar arranged by the Swedish Rheumatism Association. The report is also distributed as a PDF via the Swedish Rheumatism Association’s webpage and a few of the individual articles have been reworked to suit the web better. Conclusions: The Swedish Rheumatism Association have published a report on the research they finance in order to use it both for lobbying purposes and for fundraising. For the coming year a series of activities will be arranged around the report. For example it will be used at a research seminar that is arranged for young medical students in order to interest them in research as a career path. It will also be used in different meetings with various decision makers as well as for fundraising purpose. Disclosure of Interest: None declared DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2016-eular.4039 OP0253-PARE “SAMEN REUMA”- A CLOSED GROUP ON FACEBOOK FOR PEOPLE WITH RHEUMATIC DISEASES A.M. Zimmerman, N. Lopuhaä . Dutch Arthritis Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands Background: With a website with 250.000 visitors monthly, a fanpage on Facebook with over 17.000 fans and a Twitteraccount with about 2.400 followers the Dutch Arthritis Foundation is in touch with a very large group of people with rheumatic diseases. We noticed there is a demand for an online place to meet for people with RMDs in the Netherlands. A place to share their feelings and to ask each other questions. Nowadays there are a lot of social communities on the internet. Although we do have a Fanpage on Facebook, where we share our extensive knowledge about all kinds of rheumatic diseases, the page is accessable for everybody and less suited for more personal conversations. For this reason we started a closed Facebook group for people with RMDs where they can get in touch with peers in a more private setting (within the possibilities of Facebook) to exchange tips, give support and to find answers to more private matters. Objectives: Many people with rheumatic diseases would like to be able to get in touch with peers. On the other hand the Dutch Arthritis Foundation would like to stay in touch with patients and get more insight into what is going on in the community. For that reason we’ve created a private community on Facebook where patients can meet each other and can exchange knowledge amongst themselves and with us. Methods: In the beginning of 2015 we developed a plan to start an online community on Facebook. As not only the support of the patient community is important, but also the support from the organisation we tried to involve both as much as we could. Our goal was to reach 200 members within half a year and to have activity in the community 3 to 4 times a week.) After we set up the group on Facebook (without any members yet) we made a list of rules and in June started to ask patients to help us find members. About ten people were interested in helping and invited their friends to the group. When somebody had a question they made sure that the question got answered. In this way we started the group low profile. In July we asked two key members of the group if they would like to be a moderator, which they agreed to do. For moderation purposes we created a secret (untraceable) group on Facebook. In August we announced the group on all of our media channels (Facebook public fanpage, Twitter, website, newsletter etc) after which the group grew rapidly. Results: Our goal at six months was to have at least 200 members, by the end of 2015 we counted more than 1.700 members! The group is very active and the amount of subjects is enormous. At least every two hours somebody posts a question or reacts on someone else’s question, if not more often. The converstation contains subjects like medical problems, health insurance and solutions for daily activities. The members introduce themselves, ask questions, support each other en share their experiences and knowledge. Conclusions: As the group got off at a tremendous pace, we can conclude that it satisfies the (online) needs of people with rheumatic diseases. People are positive about the group and are likely to stay and help each other. It is still a quest for the Dutch Arthritis Foundation to decide what topics we can contribute to. While we do believe in the power of peer to peer conversations, we also think people with RMDs can benefit from our knowledge. The big question for us at this moment however is when and how often to contribute ourselves. Disclosure of Interest: None declared DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2016-eular.4009 OP0254-PARE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS AND WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH AMONG MEMBERS OF THE CREAKYJOINTS ARTHRITIS PATIENT COMMUNITY: RESULTS FROM A PATIENT SURVEY W.B. Nowell 1 , N. Gerber 1 , J.R. Curtis 2 , B. Johnson 2 , K. Saag 2 , M. Safford 2 , J. Willig 2 , S. Ginsberg 1 . 1 Global Healthy Living Foundation, Upper Nyack; 2 University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, United States Background: CreakyJoints (CJ) is an international online arthritis patient community offering support, blogs, education, advocacy and the opportunity to participate in research. Objectives: To identify willingness to participate in research among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in an online community. Methods: CJ patient community completed an online form preparatory to launch of a PCORI-funded research network (ArthritisPower.org). The online survey captured self-reported demographic, diagnosis, treatment, and willingness to participate in research. Results: As of January 2016, a total of 8923 patients had registered. Among respondents, 2147 identified themselves as patients who had RA; a subgroup of 970 completed the survey on willingness to participate in research. Demographics (N=2147): Respondents were mostly female (93%) and white, non-Hispanic (85%) with mean age of 51.7 years (SD 11.6). Conditions & Treatments (N=2147): The most frequent concomitant conditions reported by RA respondents were osteoarthritis (32%), fibromyalgia (31%), and osteoporosis (13%). A majority reported taking a classical DMARD (e.g. MTX) (59%) or a biologic (50%) including anti-TNF biologics (33%); only 23% indicated they were taking neither. Willingness to Participate in Research (N=970): Most patients (68%) had never taken part in research. Among U.S. respondents, a majority (75%) would refuse to participate in research that requires sharing Social Security Number (SSN) and 50% for the last 4 digits of SSN compared with only 20% for email and 34% for medical records. Top 3 reasons patients would not be interested in being part of medical research were: project not recommended by doctor (30%), individual results may not be kept private/confidential (28%), and project will take a lot of time (25%). Table 1 shows percentage of patients interested in research based on the source of the invitation. Conclusions: Results from this patient community survey indicate substantial willingness to participate in rheumatology research yet identify a number of potential barriers. Considering patients as unique stakeholders is vital to maximize the relevance and patient-centeredness of future research endeavors. Disclosure of Interest: None declared DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2016-eular.5427 FRIDAY, 10 JUNE 2016 Cormobidities OP0255 RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS COMORBIDITY INDEX: DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A NEW SPECIFIC TOOL FOR CLASSIFYING PROGNOSTIC COMORBIDITY IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS PATIENTS Y. El Miedany 1 , M. El Gaafary 2 , S. Youssef 3 , S. Bahlas 4 , I. Ahmed 5 , M. Hegazi 6 . 1 Rheumatology, Darent Valley Hospital, Dartford, United Kingdom; 2 Community and Public health; 3 Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt; 4 Rheumatology, King Abdel Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 5 Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt; 6 Medicine, Adan Hospital, Kuwait, Kuwait Background: Rheumatoid arthritis patients are clinically complex, and the interplay of their prognostically important conditions leads to morbidity as well as