TUESDAY, Nov. 10, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with gout, a physician-supervised treat-to-target (T2T) care model improves serum urate (SUA) target attainment, according to a study published online Nov. 4 in Arthritis & Rheumatology.
Yining Gao, M.D., from the Tongji University School of Medicine in Shanghai, and colleagues conducted a 12-month single-center, open-label superiority randomized controlled trial involving 280 men with gout. Participants were randomly assigned to an integrated physician-supervised T2T digitally supported care model (the "1CARE" platform combining automated behavioral reminders, tiered education, remote SUA monitoring, and weekly physician review [App-Led Care]) or usual care (140 to each group).
The researchers found that at 12 months, 85.0 and 48.6 percent of participants in the App-Led Care group and the usual care group, respectively, achieved the primary therapeutic target of SUA <360 μmol/L (risk ratio, 1.75). In addition, significantly lower annualized gout flare frequency was seen in the App-Led Care group (0.02 versus 0.10 flares/year). The App-Led Care group had favorable exploratory metabolic outcomes, with greater reductions in fasting plasma glucose, hemoglobin A1c, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, together with higher adherence to medication. The two groups had comparable adverse event rates.
"The integrated, physician-supervised, digitally supported '1CARE' care model demonstrated superiority over usual care in achieving serum urate targets and reducing gout flare frequency over 12 months, with exploratory evidence of favorable metabolic cobenefits," the authors write.
