There are moments that the words don’t reach There is suffering too terrible to name You hold your child as tight as you can And push away the unimaginable —Lin Manuel Miranda A friend of mine was killed a few days ago. By the time you read this column, the scars will have already started…
This year’s RheumPAC members are excited to build on their 2018 accomplishments. In 2018, we raised $144,000 from 323 individual investors. Thank you to everyone who invested and to those who supported advocacy for ACR/ARP, its members and our patients. We also introduced a new way for non-individuals (e.g., rheumatology practices, state and local rheumatology…
One of my fellows could take better care of his patients if it weren’t for the attendings getting in his way. Or so he tells me. I can hear the howls of protest already. This statement isn’t fair—it is too broad, it doesn’t fairly depict the nuances of the situation or his point of view. First,…
As physicians, we play an important role in the well-being of patients and serve as advocates to ensure our patient receives adequate healthcare services. Unfortunately, many of the policy decisions that govern our medical practices are made by bureaucrats with inadequate input from physicians. Certain constraints placed on the way we should practice medicine have…
As rheumatologists, we have a love-hate relationship with the corticosteroid prednisone, a feeling many of our patients share. It’s our most effective medication to quickly shut down an overactive immune system. When we have a patient with life- or organ-threatening autoimmune disease—severe lupus affecting the kidneys or vasculitis causing hemorrhage in the lungs, for example—large…
2018 is coming to a close, and somehow, I have managed to make it through a year as the physician editor of The Rheumatologist without being sued or fired, so I thought this would be a good time to pause and reflect on lessons learned—and to give thanks. My first lesson: this is a lot of…
Black powder was initially developed in 9th century China, by Taoists searching for the philosopher’s stone, which fans of Harry Potter will remember is the talisman that grants eternal life. The Chinese name for black powder literally translates as fire medicine. The chemical composition of black powder was first recorded in China during the 11th…
I attended medical school in the 1960s, when Dr. Lawrence Weed reinvented the medical record to organize and leverage the physician’s patient evaluation for clarity and quality of care—what he dubbed “the problem-oriented medical record.”1,2 My internal medicine house officer training at Massachusetts General placed a high value on efficient, effective medical records and communication…
“Men work harder than women.” My mother is a pediatrician, and I have two sisters—one is a dermatologist, and one is a real estate attorney. Therefore, I think understandably, this message took me by surprise. Of late, I have been particularly awed by my lawyer-sister, with whom I catch up when she is taking the…
Honestly, I’m not sure why I bothered to listen. I was in my kitchen, early on a Saturday morning, with the radio keeping me company. It started with the news and the usual litany of tragedies, both major and minor, that comprise such programs. The news gradually faded into other programming, which I can no…