We should all be thankful for these improvements in patient care, but this perspective can be narrow as it relates to how patients view the world and how we view our patients. I often fear that we are telling our patients that, in life, they are losers. Is there gain from arthritis or is there only loss? I will answer this question in a future column when I describe the Leon Fleisher concert I attended.
Dr. Pisetsky is physician editor of The Rheumatologist and professor of medicine and immunology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.
