Last month I expressed my thoughts on the valuable and varied opportunities the ACR offers for professional and personal growth. Such engagement not only provides an opportunity to connect with your rheumatology colleagues, but also to have a positive impact on patients, supporters and all consumers of healthcare. ACR and ARHP members from every aspect…
It started with an inhaler. Like many of you, I am a rheumatologist. And like you, I see some patients more often their own primary care provider. This is so often the case that I have gradually devolved into their backup, all-purpose doctor. I am the doc they notify when they get hospitalized for pneumonia…
With a steadily diversifying U.S. population, the professional and societal consequences of health disparities continue to grow. Rheumatologists may need to innovate to prevent these disparities for their patients. A new ACR program will focus on member-led projects that reduce health racial and ethnic disparities for patients with rheumatic disease…
Patients with rheumatic disease require a team of specialists working together to meet the patient’s needs. Social workers can advocate for these patients and play a variety of other roles to help them manage their disease…
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) makes recommendations to Congress on Medicare policy including physician payments and patient access issues. These recommendations can directly impact rheumatology care coverage and rheumatologist reimbursement. Representatives of the ACR and partners recently met with new MedPAC Executive Director James E. Mathews, PhD, to discuss appropriate recognition of rheumatology care…
Kent “Kwas” Huston, MD, remembers the conversations he had with his father’s rheumatology patients in Kansas City, Mo., when he visited his father’s practice while he was growing up. “They shared what a difference he made for them,” Dr. Huston explains. Dr. Huston also saw firsthand the importance of rheumatology care. His mother was diagnosed…
Arthritis is often associated with retirees, but a new analysis of government data suggests the disease is much more common in young and middle-aged adults than previously believed. Disease prevalence is currently estimated at about 54 million adults, but that number is greatly underestimated, especially among those 64 and younger, according to a study…
For many uninsured and underinsured patients in Yuba City, Calif., seeing a rheumatologist used to mean taking a day off from work and driving 108 miles, roundtrip, to the University of California Davis Medical Center. That changed this year when patients were offered the option of having a telemedicine consultation with a rheumatologist as part…
When Paul Sufka, MD, a rheumatologist with HealthPartners Medical Group and Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., wants to connect with his colleagues or keep abreast of the latest rheumatology journal articles, he turns to Twitter. Dr. Sufka is one of many rheumatologists who have found effective ways to incorporate social media into their medical…
No matter where you practice, rheumatology clinics are extremely busy. And in that hustle and bustle we find an uncomfortable jostling of priorities between delivering optimal care for as many patients as possible and upholding education for teachers and learners at all levels. Because salary usually comes from seeing more and more patients, teaching is…