Where can patients obtain more information about their diagnoses and prescription drugs, and answers to the assortment of questions they have about living with a chronic disease once they leave the rheumatologist office? Patient education materials can be found in many places on the internet, but those looking for answers may need a helping hand…
A group led by Sarah Ringold, MD, MS, assistant professor of rheumatology at Seattle Children’s Hospital, has developed a new guideline intended to provide recommendations for the treatment and monitoring of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) manifesting as non-systemic polyarthritis, sacroiliitis or enthesitis.1,2 Key Updates The new recommendations appear in both Arthritis & Rheumatology…
In a recent investigation of Swedish patients, environmental triggers of the immune system are a common factor for patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome…
In a second response letter, the FDA has cited the onset and duration of intravenous meloxicam, a non-opioid pain treatment, as concerns that it fails to meet prescriber expectations…
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—U.S. President Donald Trump called on Congress on Thursday to pass legislation to protect patients from surprise medical bills from out-of-network doctors that can unnecessarily cost patients tens of thousands of dollars. In remarks at the White House, Trump unveiled principles the administration will send to congressional lawmakers to incorporate into a legislative package…
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—U.S. President Donald Trump slammed the pharmaceutical industry for high prices of prescription drugs on Thursday and vowed to allow U.S. states to buy medicines from other countries if they cost less. Trump, who campaigned on a platform to reduce drug prices for U.S. consumers, has taken few concrete steps to lower medication costs…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Results from a substantial proportion of large, registered, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) can go unpublished for years after their completion, researchers report. “These unpublished and unreported trials include a vast number of patients, about 90,000,” Dr. John P. A. Ioannidis from Stanford University in California told Reuters Health. “Many people think that…
For RA patients, a low score on the patient global assessment of disease activity as measured by a visual analog scale (PGA-VAS) is necessary to confirm remission. However, limited patient health literacy combined with the complexity of the scale may result in discrepancies between the PGA-VAS and provider assessments of disease activity. New research examined the patient perspective on the PGA-VAS and its connections to health literacy and disease state…
(Reuters Health)—Physician Compare, a U.S. website created to help patients find high-quality doctors, is missing so much information on individual providers that it may not be helpful, a new study suggests. Quality reporting has been a work in progress for almost three decades since a landmark 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine, ‘To Err…
As soon as pediatric patients are diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), they should also be screened for uveitis, says ophthalmologist Gary Holland, MD. Otherwise, the University of California, Los Angeles, provider says, “Kids who are diagnosed with JIA may not come to an ophthalmologist until they have vision-limiting complications.” Uveitis is the most common…