Despite our best efforts and modern interventions, we still have patients in the intensive care unit with organ failure. Although renal failure can be mitigated by dialysis, patients with cardiac or respiratory failure secondary to active autoimmune disease raise difficult clinical and ethical issues. Two recent cases, both with organ failure, led us to examine…
SAN DIEGO—New insights into how scleroderma and myositis may be linked with cancer have led to intriguing questions that could impact patient care, experts said at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in November. Understanding the relationship between cancer and rheumatic diseases is important because rheumatologists are seeing more and more patients with both diseases, and…
From working a temp job in the shipping department to organizing teacher training, maintaining an antebellum mansion and learning the ins and outs of professional medical practice, David Haag has had a career in membership societies that has been anything but boring. And as of this March, he finds himself in pursuit of his next…
In November 2017, I went to Lucknow, India, where I would spend my time as an exchange fellow at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPIMS) as part of the ACR International Visiting Fellows Exchange Program. Where I Come From I completed my medical degree at Mahatma Gandhi Missions Medical College, Navi Mumbai…
Rheumatologists spend so many years treating the same patients, sometimes they start to feel like family. But for some doctors, it’s more than a feeling. The specialty attracts its fair share of relatives who can compare rheumatic notes, discuss complex cases and provide a built-in resource for advice. Brothers. Cousins. Fathers and daughters. In-laws. Husband…
Rheumatology is a small specialty, but the ACR has a large footprint in terms of activities and impact. The ACR’s remarkable success can be attributed to effective collaboration between a highly professional and talented staff and a large number of volunteer members. Under the direction of the Board of Directors, the activities and strategic initiatives…
If you are a news junkie, then you know that a tick-tock is a story that relies heavily on chronology, counting down the events of the day, in order, as inexorably as the ticking clock. These types of timeline stories have become very popular in the fast-paced world of modern politics, in which readers eat…
Various drugs are known to cause musculoskeletal symptoms, such as arthralgias, myalgias, drug-induced lupus and serum sickness.1 In the rheumatology world, the most commonly recognized drugs that can cause musculoskeletal symptoms are hydralazine, minocycline, fluoroquinolones and, recently, the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitor class of medications. Although beta blockers also have a noted side effect…
TEP In February, Lisa Gale Suter, MD, joined the Technical Expert Panel (TEP) for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Measure Development Plan, supporting the transition to the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models (APMs). She was nominated to serve in this role by the ACR. The panel comprises…
The field of rheumatology is advancing fast—alongside communication technologies that generate a massive amount of information. Paul Sufka, MD, a rheumatologist with HealthPartners in St. Paul, Minn., is interested in the ways social media can help him and other rheumatologists stay connected and keep abreast of practice information. “One thing I see people doing too…