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An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Allergan Bid to Use Tribe to Shield Drug Patents

Lawrence Hurley  |  

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. Supreme Court has cast aside pharmaceutical company Allergan Plc.’s unorthodox bid to shield patents from a federal administrative court’s review by transferring them to a Native American tribe. The justices left in place a lower court ruling upholding the authority of a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office tribunal to decide the validity…

Ethics Forum: Patient Safety at Home—What Are Our Legal & Ethical Responsibilities?

Sarah F. Keller, MD, & Marcy B. Bolster, MD  |  

A 60-year-old woman with a six-month history of retroperitoneal fibrosis transfers her care to you. She initially presented with severe bilateral flank pain radiating to the abdomen and chest. A computerized tomography (CT) angiogram of the abdomen demonstrated an infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm surrounded by a thick inflammatory rind entangling the left renal vein and…

Experts Offer Management Tips, from Contracts to Credentials to Audits

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CHICAGO—Medical practice consultant Owen Dahl, MBA, LFACHE, CHBC, looked out at the rheumatology practice managers and physicians, sitting around tables with white tablecloths, and asked what seemed like a simple question: “How many of you have a strategic plan?” he asked. A single hand was raised. “One? How do you know where to go tomorrow…

Tips for Interdisciplinary Pain Management in Older Patients

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CHICAGO—Rheumatology healthcare providers should embrace collaborative approaches to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain in older adult patients, including models of care that involve multiple providers, patients and their caregivers. That was the message delivered by two speakers in the Interdisciplinary Management of Chronic Musculo­skeletal Pain in Older Adults session at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. “As…

New Tools for Myositis Diagnosis, Classification & Management

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CHICAGO—At Hot Topics in Myositis, a session at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, three experts discussed new classification criteria for idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) and offered practical primers on overlap myositis conditions and inclusion body myositis (IBM). New Myositis Classification Criteria After a 10-year development process, the new EULAR/ACR Classification Criteria for Adult and Juvenile…

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Did Shiitake Mushrooms Induce Immune-Mediated Necrotizing Myopathy?

Takeshi Yoshida, MD, Hiroaki Chikazawa, MD, Yoshitaka Kumon, MD, PhD, & Ichizo Nishino, MD, PhD  |  

Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies are heterogenous, acquired immune-mediated muscle diseases. Over the past decade, immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy has been recognized as a subcategory of idiopathic inflammatory myopathy characterized by myofiber necrosis in the absence of prominent inflammatory cells.1 Autoantibodies against signal recognition particle (SRP) and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR) are thought to be associated with the…

At Vasculitis Conference, Patients Share Hope, Humor & Hardships

Bryn Nelson, PhD  |  

SEATTLE—At the first regional vasculitis patient conference ever held in the Pacific Northwest, a panoramic view of Mt. Rainier on a clear January morning set the tone for a day of optimistic talks about recent successes against the various forms of blood vessel inflammation. One attendee at the Jan. 12 conference, sponsored by the Vasculitis…

The RISE Registry Delivers Practice-Based Evidence to Rheumatologists

Nancy A. Baker, ScD, MPH, OT; Margarita Fallena, MD; Tracy Johansson, MS; Janell Martin, CAE; Kaleb Michaud, PhD; Cynthia S. Crowson, PhD; Dina L. Jones, PT, PhD  |  

The advent of quality-based healthcare, such as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), requires rheumatology professionals to demonstrate their practice is based on interventions supported by the best available evidence and that their practice, in turn, provides quality care. These requirements have increased the need for methods to measure and quantify…

Mark Andrejeski, Longtime ACR Executive Vice President, Retiring

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In March 1987, Mark Andrejeski moved from Columbus, Ohio, to Atlanta to lead a brand-new organization: the American Rheumatism Association (ARA). The professional association of rheumatologists had separated from the Arthritis Foundation 15 months earlier. “Initially, I was just trying to make sure the organization survived,” says Mr. Andrejeski, who studied business management and economics…

The ACR Supports Its Members Via Collaboration

Paula Marchetta, MD, MBA  |  

We all know words can be powerful. They often resonate with several levels of meaning, enriching our understanding and broadening our perspective. Take the word promise, for example. It implies responsibility, as in, “We promise to do it.” It is also imbued with hope, as in “This idea has great promise.” At the ACR we…