A recent JAMA Pediatrics article found that 83% of clinicians admitted to coming to work while sick and 95% admitted to knowing that it could be dangerous for their patients.1 “The decision to work sick is shaped by systems-level and sociocultural factors,” the study authors wrote. In speaking with rheumatologists on the matter, I found…
Hand and digit pain are common presenting symptoms to primary care physicians, rheumatologists, physiatrists and neurologists. There are many causes, but quality and location of the pain can be important clues to the diagnosis. Glomus tumors, neurovascular hamartomas of the glomus body, are an uncommon cause of hand pain. The glomus unit itself is a…
SAN FRANCISCO—A broadening of the medical community’s horizons in how pain is regarded and treated in older adults, including those with osteoarthritis and other rheumatic diseases, is sorely needed, a researcher said at the 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. Incidence Studies show that a large percentage of older adults each year see physicians for such issues…
(Reuters Health)—Mind-based therapy programs may help ease chronic back pain, new research suggests. Patients who took part in such programs were more likely to have noticeable and lasting improvements in back pain than those who stuck to their usual routines, investigators found. Both of the approaches tested in the study—mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and cognitive…
(Reuters)—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday new required class-wide safety labeling changes for immediate-release opioid pain medications. Among the changes, the FDA now requires these pain medications to carry a new boxed warning about the serious risks of misuse, abuse, addiction, overdose and death. The FDA also requires several additional safety labeling…
(Reuters)—Addressing a growing “epidemic” of opioid overdoses and abuse of the prescribed painkillers in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday released voluntary guidelines that instruct primary care doctors to sharply deter use of the medicines for chronic pain. “Overprescribing opioids, largely for chronic pain, is a key driver of America’s…
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.
Many rheumatologists chose the profession because they wanted to delve more deeply into rheumatic diseases than internal medicine calls for. “For most, this level of specialization is sufficient and worthy of a lifelong devotion and commitment,” says S. Sam Lim, MD, MPH, associate professor, Medicine and Epidemiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta. “However, some…
The care of patients with rheumatic diseases has undergone a great transition, with high expectations for both patients and healthcare professionals to achieve quality outcomes for the many different disorders. Integral to this goal is the development of new care models, with evolving roles for the various care providers on the multidisciplinary team.1-3 A new…
What rheumatologist doesn’t love the good old zebra hunt? You know—the pursuit of diagnosing the extraordinarily rare disease purely through pluck and wits. The zebra hunt is almost a tradition, a perennial topic of polite, but subtly boastful, conversation among peers and the subject of numerous career-building case reports. The hunt also happens to be…