Samantha C. Shapiro, MD, is a clinician educator who practices telerheumatology and writes for both medical and lay audiences. She earned her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. In 2018, she completed her internal medicine residency and rheumatology fellowship training at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Fresh out of training, she founded the Division of Rheumatology at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin, where she remains an affiliate faculty member. In September 2021, she left her full-time academic position to pursue her main passions: clinical education, patient education, advocacy and international travel. She works with various telehealth services to improve access to rheumatologic care. She educates patients and physicians as a medical writer and enjoys writing for both lay and medical audiences. She is an active member of the ACR, volunteering her time to the ACR’s Insurance Subcommittee.
Your patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) isn’t responding well enough to methotrexate, and you both agree it’s time to consider a biologic or targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD). But which one should you choose? In a treat-to-target era, we’re fortunate to have a variety of RA therapies at our disposal. Clinical practice guidelines from…
“What are you up to this weekend?” “Flying to Guam.” “What? Why?” “I promised an entire island I’d be their doctor.” In fall 2021, Jonathon Thorp, MD, phoned a friend. A passionate internist, he was bound and determined to bring a rheumatologist to Guam. Unlike most primary care providers (PCPs), he was willing to prescribe…
In June 2022, I listened to several presentations on gout at EULAR’s European Congress of Rheumatology. Most began with data confirming a sad truth that we, as rheumatology providers, are all aware of: too many patients are taking subtherapeutic doses of urate-lowering therapy (ULT).1,2 Recommendations from the American College of Physicians in 2017 advocated for…
Van der Meulen et al. found the use of both systemic and inhaled glucocorticoids is associated with changes in several brain imaging parameters, including decreased white matter integrity and gray matter volume. Study patients also reported more depressive symptoms and tiredness than controls.
PHILADELPHIA—Whether due to Sjögren’s disease or something else, dry mouth is a common chief complaint from patients with rheumatic illnesses. Dry mouth isn’t life-threatening, but it can have a serious impact on quality of life. Sialogogues like cevimeline and pilocarpine may benefit some, but not all, patients, but cholinergic side effects often limit their usefulness….
PHILADELPHIA—As rheumatologists, we care for patients who may or may not want to become pregnant. We aren’t obstetricians or gynecologists, but several of the drugs we prescribe for active rheumatic disease can negatively affect pregnancy outcomes. It’s imperative we understand how to effectively counsel our patients with rheumatic disease on the risks and benefits of…
How does a rheumatologist treat a pregnant woman when many medications are not approved for pregnancy or safety data are limited?
PHILADELPHIA—At ACR Convergence 2022, the much-anticipated ACR Review Course featured talks from eight experts. Topics reflected the heterogeneity of our field and included Sjögren’s disease, spondyloarthritis (SpA), osteoarthritis (OA), paraneoplastic rheumatic syndromes, metabolic bone disease, statin myopathy, Raynaud’s phenomenon and autoinflammatory syndrome. Here, I share highlights from this comprehensive, six-hour session. Sjögren’s Disease Sara S….
An ACR Convergence 2022 session provided practical updates on ways to best protect pediatric & adult patients with rheumatic disease from COVID-19.
In this overview of clinical updates in rheumatology in the last year, high-impact studies were discussed, including the GLORIA, ORAL Surveillance and MIRROR trials.