The ACR’s quality measures for care include gauging disease activity and functional status via patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and clinical assessments during routine care.1 But how do rheumatologists effectively incorporate PROs into a clinic visit? Christie Bartels, MD, MS, chief of the Division of Rheumatology and associate professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin…
‘Cannabis has a long history of being used for pain management,’ says Physician Editor Bharat Kumar, MD, MME, FACP, FAAAAI, RhMSUS. ‘What does it mean for rheumatology patients moving forward? Read our article for one answer to this question.’ As cannabis becomes more widely legalized, both in the U.S. and internationally, its use for pain…
These events will provide a critical opportunity for patients, caregivers, patient organizations, clinicians and researchers to offer input on the drugs selected for the second cycle of negotiations.
At first, there was an incomprehensibly loud explosion. And out of that explosion, about 4.5 billion years afterward, emerged the world’s first rheumatologist. Only a few notable things have happened between these two events, but the most important dynamic has been the continuous expansion of our universe. If the speculations of many cosmologists are correct,…
The world didn’t end on Jan. 1, 2000. The Y2K bug didn’t crash airplanes and liquidate bank assets. We were, overall, hopeful for the future—a new millennium full of futuristic visions of a techno-utopia. Fast forward a quarter of a century and we now live in that technologically advanced age that once seemed so far…
It’s dark. It’s cold. And it’s 5 p.m. here in Iowa. If that sounds rather bleak to you, I wouldn’t blame you. But to Stella, my 12-year-old canine companion, it’s a wonderland. She’s half-Shetland sheepdog and half-American Eskimo, so the colder and snowier it is, the more she feels at home. And although I do…
Dr. David D’Cruz’s research attempts to help patients make sense of chronic nightmares, an understudied symptom of lupus.
It was like a reverse Uno card had been thrown onto the table. My patient was now asking his rheumatologist, “Are you okay? You look like you’re in a lot of pain.” He was right. I was wincing trying to get up from my seat and limping trying to get a few steps over to…
Magdalena “Maggie” Cadet, MD, a rheumatologist in New York City, remembers learning about the relationship between physical activity and bone health at a young age. She was 5 years old when she first began taking ballet, jazz and tap-dancing lessons. At 9, she became a competitive figure skater and practiced both dance and ice skating…
A school science project demonstrates that flipbooks can be a useful educational tool for patients and their families to learn about rheumatic conditions and their treatment.