The underlying tenet of the ACR’s advocacy efforts is that we cannot effect change for our profession and our patients unless we take our issues directly to decision makers. As I write this column, I am highly encouraged by the progress we have made so far this year in the advocacy realm. At the same…
“Wait. I can explain.” One could imagine this phrase coming up under many conditions in daily life. When I first became a physician, however, I would never have expected to use this phrase in my clinic. In medical school, I was taught the importance of dialogue in establishing a relationship with a patient. Statistics indicate…
How do you ask a new patient about sex and gender—or know which pronoun to use? Keep the conversation straightforward and respectful to put everyone at ease, says Morgan Orndorff, a transgender man who works as an administrator at a major academic medical center. “Everyone is a little different in terms of their sensitivity level”…
Take the challenge. CPT codes: 96413, 96415, 96375, J1745x30, J1200x1 Diagnosis ICD-10: M05.79 With the total infusion time of two hours and 13 minutes, CPT code 96413 is used to code for the first hour of the infusion and 96415 for the additional hour. The infusion would have to be 31 minutes into the next…
A 73-year-old female established patient with rheumatoid arthritis affecting multiple joints and with positive rheumatoid factor returns to the office for an infliximab infusion. She denies any fevers, cough, dyspnea or concurrent illness. She has joint pain of 6 on the pain scale. She is on an NSAID, weekly methotrexate subcutaneous injections, folic acid and…
With extensive clinical trial data being published daily, how does a rheumatologist stay up to date on latest breakthroughs? Rheumatologists can leverage multiple online resources to stay informed and apply information to patient care…
A recently published research review notes physician burnout has become a crisis in the U.S. The authors describe how the added administrative tasks of electronic health records (EHRs) have contributed to the crisis, as well as how regulatory requirements and EHR platform design exacerbate the situation…
(Reuters Health)—Obese people with knee osteoarthritis (OA) may find greater symptom relief when they lose larger amounts of weight, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data on 240 obese adults with pain from knee OA who were participating in an 18-month experiment to see how diet alone or diet plus exercise affected their health. Participants…
On the basis of data from multiple clinical trials, the FDA has approved certolizumab pegol for treating moderate to severe plaque psoriasis…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Effective pharmacotherapy of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is not associated with meaningful improvements in mental health, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis. “We were surprised by the small effect sizes for mental-health outcomes across all of the treatments included in this review, but particularly for the anti-TNF versus disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)…