Rheumatology is a field rife with uncertainty. With regard to both diagnosis and treatment, we live in a world of rare diseases that are difficult to study. As a result, we are often left without an answer to our diagnostic dilemmas and without clarity when deciding the best treatment options for our patients. For rheumatologists…
“Congratulations! You have matched!” With Match Day in the rearview mirror and residency nearing an end, incoming fellows prepare for the next road trip on their journey to becoming a rheumatologist. Residency molds new graduates into competent physicians by providing an overview of general medicine and teaching them the clinical and professional skills necessary to…
We spend a good portion of our day in front of screens—televisions, computers, tablets, phones and more. Social media (#SoMe) use has been on the rise, and its marriage to medicine seems inevitable. Merriam-Webster, aka America’s most trusted online dictionary, defines social media as forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to…
The past 20 years have seen dramatic changes in the practice of rheumatology, ranging from bench to bedside therapeutic advances to dramatic improvements in diagnostic imaging. The results have been gratifying for our patients and attractive to internal medicine trainees making subspecialty career decisions. We are pleased to provide this article for The Rheumatologist’s wide-ranging…
Early in her medical school career, Beth Jonas, MD, FACR, was fascinated by the multi-system and chronic nature of rheumatic diseases. The field of rheumatology offered her the chance to make long-term connections with the patients she cares for, and she says her early instincts have led her to a career that has not disappointed….
The Rheumatology Research Foundation has received a major donation from Audrey M. Nelson, MD, a retired rheumatologist from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. The Audrey M. Nelson, MD, Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship Endowment in Training will support training awards for pediatric rheumatology fellowships. This generous donation addresses the growing demand for pediatric rheumatologists to ensure…
I am an alien rheumatologist. Are you? One in five rheumatology fellows is considered an alien. Under the Code of Federal Regulations Title 22 Chapter I Subchapter G Part 62 Subpart B Section 62.27, an alien physician is a foreign national who is a graduate of a school of medicine who comes to the U.S….
SAN DIEGO—The Next Accreditation System, the newest process for evaluating medical residency and fellowship programs and their participants, including future rheumatologists, was implemented in 2014 by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The system introduced specialty-specific milestones designed to reflect significant points in professional development. Milestones are defined by ACGME as a rubric…
During the two or three short years of a rheumatology fellowship, there is so much to learn: the subtle art of the musculoskeletal examination, the intricacies of the immune system and the indications for a dizzyingly increasing array of new medications, to name just a few topics. One topic that you rarely hear about, but…
“I was hoping for good news, but now I am worried,” was the response of a 29-year-old patient when I suggested an oncology referral. He was four months into treatment of dermatomyositis and had experienced significant improvement of his muscle strength, CPK levels and interstitial pneumonitis, but a follow-up CT scan showed that his spleen…