It’s been said that there is no greater bully pulpit than the American presidency. Linking the force of moral persuasion to this most powerful office—one that is capable of issuing executive orders and bypassing the wishes of Congress or rousing public opinion in favor of or against bills that are in the process of being…
When I came to Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) in St. Louis in 1996 to become fellowship program director, the previous program director had left, and the two fellows who had been selected both backed out (this was before the match). I was handed a stack of manila folders, which contained the previous documentation….
Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. … The potential for greatness lives within each of us. —Wilma Rudolph, U.S. Olympic sprinter & winner of three gold medals From Spinnaker to Wheelchair It can be an unnerving experience when the patient you are about to see is young and…
Associate Editor of The Rheumatologist on Working Sabbatical Maura Daly Iversen, PT, DPT, SD, MPH, professor and chair of the Department of Physical Therapy, Movement, and Rehabilitation Sciences at Northeastern University, a behavioral scientist in the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and…
“No more excuses.” At least, that’s what Amanda Nelson, MD, MSCR, now tells her patients. As a rheumatologist, assistant professor in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and clinical researcher at UNC’s onsite Thurston Arthritis Research Center, Dr. Nelson says patients often provide a litany of legitimate—and sometimes…
For keen students of American politics, the unending intrigue of the 2016 presidential race has been riveting. With an assemblage of aspiring candidates that, at its start, included a bevy of U.S. senators and former governors, a media-savvy real estate mogul, a renowned Hopkins neurosurgeon and an ophthalmologist, political junkies among us have feasted on…
Robert Thoburn, MD, finds discipline and the opportunity for continual learning in both rheumatology and karate, an activity he has pursued for decades. Karate Lessons “I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn karate and achieve a black belt,” Dr. Thoburn says. “I used my training journal and [did] extensive research to write a…
Discussing aching joints, sore muscles and tender limbs is all in our day’s work. We are rheumatologists; we deal in misery. But trying to parse the true meaning of these terms is among the most vexing of clinical challenges.
Slow, slow, quick, quick. Don Miller, PharmD, has repeated that phrase to himself countless times over the past 40 years. Since the 1980s, Dr. Miller, a professor of pharmacy practice in the College of Health Professions at North Dakota State University (NDSU), has been a competitive ballroom dancer. Repeating that phrase is common to all…
Currier McEwen, MD, was a truly remarkable rheumatologist, accomplishing more than even the best of us could imagine. He is even more recognized in the horticulture community as a hybridizer of flowers. He was born Osceola Currier McEwen on April Fool’s Day, 1902, in Newark, N.J., and died in 2003, at the age of 101….