Sweeping changes in how physicians are paid for patient care are on the way. The Medicare Access and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Act of 2015, or MACRA, tossed out the Sustainable Growth Rate formula and ties reimbursement to quality measures. A Helpful Presentation Because 2017 is the first performance year under the new…
(Reuters Health)—Playing team sports, especially soccer, at the elite level may lead to a higher risk for osteoarthritis, but the existing research is of such low quality it’s hard to say for sure, according to a recent review. In an analysis of past studies filled with conflicting results, researchers found that long-distance running was the…
We read the case report by Dr. Diana Girnita and colleagues (“Severe Refractory Gout: What options are left when pegloticase fails?” The Rheumatologist, August 2016) with interest. A case is reported of a subject with 20 years of chronic refractory gout who failed to respond to pegloticase therapy, and the potential roles of anti-drug antibodies or…
Obesity has an established systemic inflammatory component. Could that be a trigger for the inflammation seen in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other rheumatic diseases? Although there is no direct scientific evidence, both mechanistic and epidemiologic clues do give some intriguing suggestions of a possible link. “At first, we thought that fat was involved only in…
As America’s capital, Washington, D.C., maintains an outsized influence in our daily lives. Despite having a meager sliver of the New York City population, the daily political transactions that transpire in the District of Columbia impact our lives. The comings and goings in the corridors of Congress are likely to have a greater impact on us…
Dr. Amanda King Elected President of Caribbean Association for Rheumatology The Caribbean Association for Rheumatology (CAR) elected Amanda King, MBBS(UWI), MRCP(UK), FRCP(Glas.), president during the 7th Annual CAR Scientific Meeting this summer. This year’s CAR meeting concentrated on education for general practitioners, because there are still some islands without a rheumatologist. She is the only rheumatologist…
From its beginnings as the Rheumatic Diseases Study Group (RDSG) in the early 1930s, NYU Langone Medical Center’s Division of Rheumatology has been built on a tradition of research and clinical care. Today’s division, with 24 full-time and 76 part-time faculty members, continues to push toward understanding the pathogenesis of rheumatic diseases and interventions to…
It’s not uncommon for a new patient to arrive at the medical offices of Alan Schenk, MD, in Laguna Woods, Calif., and immediately ask him about his musical career. In addition to being a board-certified rheumatologist for the past 32 years, Dr. Schenk is also an accomplished acoustic jazz guitarist and mandolin player. Music First “I…
Are too many patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia? The co-authors of one new study believe that close to 75% of patients who have received a clinical fibromyalgia diagnosis do not meet the 2010 Preliminary American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Criteria for Fibromyalgia.1 They say these patients are false-positive and may be taking treatments they don’t need….
Richard Meehan, MD, can still hear the distinctive sound of footsteps that would travel along a gravel path toward his wooden hut in the middle of the night in Iraq. “I’d hear somebody walk from the command post, either toward my hut or the operations officer who slept in the hut next to mine,” says…