During the past three years, Marcus Snow, MD, FACR, has deftly guided the ACR’s Committee on Rheumatological Care (CORC) to support members through many hurdles, including the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges to improve patient access to therapies and navigating the biosimilar boom. He’s also brought his strong ability to lead to make positive changes to the structure and operation of the committee itself.
Recognizing CORC Accomplishments
Dr. Snow
As Dr. Snow prepares to step down as CORC chair, the ACR reflected on his highly productive tenure and noted several key CORC accomplishments that have impacted the practice of rheumatology. In collaboration with other volunteer leaders, Dr. Snow and CORC have:
- Led the development of COVID vaccine updates for members and resources for members and patients;
- Created guidance for members on JAK inhibitors in relation to black box warnings;
- Drafted many position statement updates, including a new position statement on the Value of Rheumatology;
- Helped create the ACR’s Community Practice Council (CPC) to address and engage private practice rheumatology colleagues;
- Restructured the way CORC approaches its work throughout the year, adapting the rhythm of volunteer work and meetings to allow for more productivity while keeping up with the needs of the rheumatology community; and
- Worked with the committee and ACR staff to leverage new ways to connect members and deliver information, including town halls, podcasts and other resources.
“The rheumatology community has been fortunate to have Dr. Snow at the helm of CORC,” notes Adam Cooper, MS, vice president of practice, advocacy & quality for the ACR. “His personal leadership style and commitment to spurring collaborative efforts, both within and beyond CORC, have been key, especially given the rapid expansion of issues impacting the practice of rheumatology over the past three years.”
For Dr. Snow, these and the many other achievements he led through CORC represent powerful learning experiences that have changed him and inspired his career trajectory as an associate professor of medicine at University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha. “The practice of rheumatology is not easy and the additional administrative burden that is increasingly put upon us on a daily basis can wear you down,” he says. “Through volunteering with the ACR, I’ve been able to help fight those battles and try to help build things the way they should be. I think the fact that we can make a difference in how rheumatology is practiced is so energizing.”
Dr. Snow recapped a few important achievements through his tenure as CORC chair that he is especially proud of.
Changing the Way CORC Members Work Together
Stepping into his role as CORC chair in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges that Dr. Snow was able to turn into opportunities. “Sometimes,” he notes, “you choose the moment to make changes, and other times the moment chooses you. In this case, it was mainly the latter.”
One simple but meaningful change for committee work came about because members were not able to meet in-person during COVID, and lengthy virtual meetings were challenging to schedule after a long workday. So, Dr. Snow transitioned CORC to hour-long meetings, held on the same day and time each month. “We found a way to get our work done in that time frame, and I think it has been very successful because it allowed for issues to be discussed at multiple meetings. This allowed the group to think about the topics in between meetings and allowed anyone who missed one meeting to still contribute at the next meeting.”
An even bigger benefit of more regular meetings was that they offered more opportunities to “be better in tune with the ‘environment’ of the practice of rheumatology at the granular level, where patients were being seen day in and day out,” he shares.
Improving Practice Support for Membership
CORC’s number one task is to address the economic, technical and ethical issues that bear on the practice of rheumatology. During Dr. Snow’s tenure as chair, the committee was able to evolve and come out better equipped to serve in this role for the College. For example, CORC worked to provide members with educational and patient-specific materials to help their practices in ways the committee had not in the past, he says. “We produced webinars, developed a variety of clinically important printed documents that were updated frequently and helped create other multimedia related to the biosimilar wave that is hitting now.”
Another important role of CORC is to produce and update position statements for the ACR on issues affecting the practice of rheumatology. The committee has worked hard to keep them updated and in line with how the specialty is practiced, Dr. Snow adds. “The change during my term to monthly meetings allowed us to give timely feedback to the Board of Directors on position statements and other various topics, as well as help the ACR as a whole be more aware of threats to the practice of rheumatology.”
Connecting with New Colleagues
One of the true highlights of chairing CORC for Dr. Snow has been the colleagues he’s met, whom he now calls friends. “Volunteering for the ACR was the best professional decision I have made. In addition to the satisfaction of working to make things better, I have friends across the country that I can email or text or call and quickly be in touch with someone who is great at what they do and can help me and how I practice rheumatology.”
He also thanked the ACR staff for their work. “They are truly professionals and do more for each member than really can be appreciated.”
As incoming CORC Chair Chris Phillips, MD, prepares to step into his latest ACR volunteer role, Dr. Snow looks forward to collaborating with Dr. Phillips and watching CORC’s work continue to support rheumatologists in advancing patient care. “Chris is an amazing advocate for rheumatologists and for our patients,” Dr. Snow says. “He understands the issues at hand and has the perfect background for this role. I am certain he will do amazing things as chair.”
Carina Stanton is a freelance science journalist based in Denver.
