Throughout a patient’s lifetime, providers are entrusted with their most intimate and personal information, which they expect to be kept private and confidential. Unfortunately, the healthcare system can face serious implications if any part of a patient’s privacy or information is breached. Under the Health Information Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) and state laws healthcare…
Missed appointments have long been a problem for rheumatology practices. A recent poll from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) found no-shows were the single biggest challenge reported by practice leaders, with 44% of respondents citing the issue.1 If a patient does not come to the office when scheduled, it starts a cascade of events…
If someone had told me that one day I would serve as the 82nd president of the ACR, I would have thought it as likely as lassoing the moon. Now, with the gavel passed to me at our 2018 Annual Meeting, I assume this role in awe of the enormity of this honor, as well…
BALTIMORE—Understanding issues regarding pregnancy in women with rheumatic disease is important to patients and physicians alike, said Bonnie Bermas, MD, the Dr. Morris Ziff Distinguished Professor in Rheumatology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, in her recent lecture at the Maryland Society for the Rheumatic Diseases.The physiologic changes in normal pregnancy, which include increased circulating…
Researchers working to decode the epigenetic landscape for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were surprised to discover a connection to Huntington’s disease, a finding that could pave the way to discoveries of new therapeutic targets. By developing new methods to integrate data from epigenetic technologies, scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), set out to…
Gaps in healthcare are common between the ages of 17 and 21. But simple collaborations between adult and pediatric rheumatologists can go a long way to help young adults stay engaged in their rheumatology care…
Uveitis is an inflammation of the uvea, which comprises the iris, ciliary body and choroid. Uveitis can lead to ocular damage and complete visual loss. Noninfectious etiologies for uveitis are the most common in the U.S.1 The estimated incidence of uveitis ranges from 25–52 per 100,000 in adults and five per 100,000 in children. The…
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…
New research identifies how education designed to empower self-care and collaboration among providers, patients and family members can help patients with Sjögren’s syndrome manage their daily challenges and take back their lives…