Just YouTube it. As a rheumatologist who sees many patients with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), I have spent a significant portion of my life talking to people about neti pots. Originally, the neti pot was part of the Ayurvedic tradition. Neti pots were used to flush the sinuses with water, milk and ghee, or to…
The editors of The Rheumatologist would like to thank all of the rheumatologists, rheumatology professionals and professional writers who took the time and effort in an unprecedented pandemic year to ensure we could continue to bring you the important clinical guidelines, case reports, current research, COVID-19 coverage and so much more. This publication would not…
Camelot allegedly existed once upon a time in South Wales. The name was evoked again in the 1960s, but perhaps it is also applicable to the character of rheumatology in the halcyon days of the 1970s and 80s. That’s not to belittle the world we now live in, with so many treatment options for our…
Ethan Craig was not pleased. As a reader of this column, you know that Dr. Craig is an assistant professor of clinical medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Pennsylvania and an associate editor of The Rheumatologist. On this particular morning, however, he was the father of a 5-year-old who woke up…
I never wake up late. This wasn’t always the case. All the way through residency, I was completely dependent on alarm clocks to keep from oversleeping. So much so that when my alarm clock broke halfway through my internship, I replaced it the next day. I remember driving in the middle of the night to…
“It’s like winning Powerball.” For months, there has been a steady trickle of questions from my patients, asking for my opinion about the new vaccines being developed to prevent COVID-19. More to the point, they want to know if they should be vaccinated. After some fits and starts, I finally struck upon a pat answer…
In case you missed it, on Nov. 20, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a department within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced that it will overhaul the payment system for Medicare Part B (i.e., infusion) drugs on Jan. 1, 2021. The plan is called the Most Favored Nation (MFN)…
The search for knowledge has shaped Western culture and is based on Greek philosophy, especially Aristotelian metaphysics. During the Middle Ages, this knowledge was matured by dialectical scholasticism, culminating, in its later stages, in the amalgam between Islamic science and the neo-Aristotelianism of St. Thomas Aquinas.1 In this way, the foundations of the future scientific…
Our hospitals have had their finest hour in the care of acutely ill inpatients during the COVID-19 pandemic, including dealing with allocation decisions fairly and transparently, maximizing good outcomes and remaining cognizant of the enduring ethics of healthcare. The honorable traditions of self-effacing conduct and acceptance of some level of personal risk by healthcare professionals…
On April 5, 1950, a small group of scientists met in Silver Spring, Md., to talk about geophysics. I know this is not the most riveting way to start, but if you stick with me, I promise the story will get much more interesting. This group of scientists met to discuss all that was still…