The glassblowers were in revolt. The island of Murano, in the 13th century, was a perfect home for the glassblowing industry. Connected to Venice through a system of bridges, Murano was surrounded by waters that protected the city from the furnaces that fueled the glassblowers’ craft. The Republic of Venice dominated trade throughout the Mediterranean,…
Charles G. Helmick III, MD, Retires After 42 Years with the CDC On Dec. 31, 2021, after 42 years of service, Charles (Chad) G. Helmick III, MD (Capt., USPHS, Ret.), officially retired from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He joined the CDC in 1979, when Jimmy Carter was president, and served through eight…
It is better to be feared than loved. The associate dean of student affairs at my medical school embraced this motto. Although the dean of the medical school was titularly in charge, it was the associate dean who kept the school running. And we all feared her, just a little bit. Without ever raising her…
We read the article, “Rheumatologists Share Lessons Learned in the Wake of Hurricane Ida” (July 2022, The Rheumatologist), with great interest. This poignant account of the impacted patients and rheumatologists provides invaluable planning tips regarding medication loss, access to pharmacies and medical records, and strategies to avoid practice losses. The critical lessons presented in this…
Elliot Rosenstein, MD, spends most weekend mornings and late afternoons a bit differently than other rheumatologists. He feeds and waters chickens, rabbits, llamas, horses, goats and guinea fowl, as well as an orphaned peacock. Dr. Rosenstein is one of two medical directors at the Institute of Rheumatic & Autoimmune Disease (IRAD) at Overlook Medical Center,…
I just didn’t understand. I was an excellent student. I know this is true of most of you. Given the nature of this publication, most of our readership have graduate degrees. This means that collectively, after completing four years of college, we all made the financially dubious decision to pursue post-graduate education, like lemmings jumping…
Jennifer May, MD, a rheumatologist with Rapid City Medical Center, South Dakota, completed her undergraduate degree at Augustana University, Sioux Falls, S.D., and earned her medical degree at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine, Vermillion. She was in the fourth grade when she first began playing the viola. Although she came to love…
Medal for Excellence Awarded to Graciela Alarcón, MD Graciela (Chela) S. Alarcón, MD, MPH, is the emeritus Jane Knight Lowe Chair of Medicine in Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and a professor of medicine (emeritus) at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), Lima, Perú, her alma mater. Last fall, she received the…
I wouldn’t normally look to professional basketball as a model for healthcare, but sometimes answers come from unexpected places. The observation that elite athletes are not like you and me—medically speaking—is not new. In the second century AD, the pontifex maximus in Pergamum recognized this fact and appointed Claudius Galen physician to the gladiators, making…
The Washington Rheumatology Alliance is focused on creative ways to increase the rheumatology workforce to meet the demand for care, such as instituting clinical rotations in rheumatology for nurse practitioner programs and advocating for pediatric rheumatologist loan forgiveness.