About
The OMERACT Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Strategic Advisory Working Group serves a dual purpose within OMERACT. This hybrid group operates as a traditional working group focused on EDI initiatives and projects and is a strategic advisory body to the OMERACT Management Group. This distinctive structure enables the group to implement actionable EDI efforts and provide expert guidance to inform OMERACT's overarching policies and practices.
Through our dual role, we are committed to:
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Ensuring Diverse Participation
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Fostering Cultural Openness
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Supporting Inclusive Working Groups
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Expanding Global Collaborator Engagement
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Improving Accessibility and Inclusivity
OMERACT 2025 Plenary Session
OMERACT 2025 EDI Plenary session featuring survey insights on who participates in OMERACT, key barriers to inclusion, and an interactive workshop to generate practical recommendations to improve equity, diversity, and accessibility across OMERACT.
Current Stage in the OMERACT Process
The EDI group is embedding inclusive practices across OMERACT governance and meetings. Insights from their OMERACT 2025 sessions are being translated into actionable recommendations for future implementation.
Latest Update
OMERACT 2025 Conference Highlights
Fellow Poster: Our OMERACT Fellow, Megan Thomas, presented a poster summarizing the current state of our work, sparking excellent conversations about next steps and collaborations.
👉 View the poster here
Lightning Talk: In a rapid-fire session, our team shared an upcoming teaser of the Special Interest Group (SIG) session taking place during the conference.
👉 Watch the lightning talk here
Plenary Talk: Our work was featured in one of the main plenary sessions at OMERACT.
👉 Watch the session here
Looking Ahead
The EDI team is continuing to build momentum from the OMERACT 2025 session, working on summarizing barriers identified by participants and developing a set of practical recommendations for enhancing equity, diversity, and inclusion in all stages of OMERACT research.
Next Meeting
TBD
Recent Publications
- Maxwell, Lara J., et al. “Embracing Unity at OMERACT: Valuing Equity, Promoting Diversity, Fostering Inclusivity.” Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, vol. 66, 152422, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semarthrit.2024.152422.
- Barnabe, Cheryl, et al. “Validation Studies of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Populations at Risk for Inequity: A Systematic Review and Analysis Using the OMERACT Summary of Measurement Properties Equity Table.” Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, vol. 55, 152029, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semarthrit.2022.152029.
- Petkovic, Jennifer, et al. “Development of an Extension of the OMERACT Summary of Measurement Properties Table to Capture Equity Considerations: SOMP-Equity.” Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, vol. 51, no. 6, 2021, pp. 1300–10, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semarthrit.2021.09.005.
- Petkovic, Jennifer, et al. “Health Equity Considerations for Developing and Reporting Patient-Reported Outcomes in Clinical Trials: A Report from the OMERACT Equity Special Interest Group.” Journal of Rheumatology, vol. 44, no. 11, 2017, pp. 1727–33, https://doi.org/10.3899/jrheum.160975.
- Petkovic, Jennifer, et al. “Toward Ensuring Health Equity: Readability and Cultural Equivalence of OMERACT Patient-Reported Outcome Measures.” Journal of Rheumatology, vol. 42, no. 12, 2015, pp. 2448–59, https://doi.org/10.3899/jrheum.141168.
- O’Neill, Jennifer, et al. “Including Health Equity Considerations in Development of Instruments for Rheumatology Research: An Introduction to a Novel OMERACT Paradigm.” Journal of Rheumatology, vol. 41, no. 1, 2014, pp. 150–52, https://doi.org/10.3899/jrheum.130812.