When the local hospital approaches you about selling your practice and converting it to a provider-based outpatient department, you may want to hear them out. There are many benefits to becoming a department of the hospital, but what would it mean for you and the practice you worked tirelessly to build? What Does It Mean…
We’re in this together for rheumatology and our patients. Those who know me appreciate my devotion to Duke Basketball and my pride in their recent NCAA championship. Coach K (Krzyzewski), a firmly established leader in the world of college basketball, makes the analogy that a basketball team is like five fingers on a hand, and…
One parent wishes that she could have consulted a crystal ball at the beginning of her daughter’s illness to have “some kind of idea of what we were in for. There are so many stages of letting go of the idea of what your little kid is in for in life, what they are going…
Want to hear about the latest advances in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and polymyositis/dermatomyositis and how best to implement interprofessional care for your patients? The Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals (ARHP) Clinical Focus Course (CFC) is the course for you. The CFC is a full-day course titled, Clinical Advances in…
Ankle arthritis is a debilitating condition that leaves many patients in severe pain and greatly limits their activities. Until recently, the standard treatment for bone-on-bone ankle pain has been ankle fusion, or arthrodesis, in which surgeons literally fuse the bones of the ankle joint together. However, in the past few years, total ankle replacement surgery,…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—A Dutch study confirms that reduced serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) are associated with increased fracture risk in elderly women, but not men. In an Aug. 31 online paper in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Dr. N.C. van Varsseveld, of VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, and colleagues noted that…
How are Annie and Abby? That’s a question some patients ask J. Michelle Kahlenberg, MD, PhD, a rheumatologist and assistant professor in the school of medicine at the University of Michigan, who also runs a lupus research lab at the University of Michigan Health System. Patients aren’t asking about her children, but family members of…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Adding to earlier evidence, a new study finds kids with septic arthritis who are treated with dexamethasone recover faster. “We expected these results based on our previous randomized double-blind controlled study,” Dr. Itay Fogel from Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel and Tel Aviv University told Reuters Health by email. “However, the…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The American College of Physicians (ACP) has issued a baker’s dozen of recommendations intended to guide the effective use of telemedicine in primary care settings. “The recommendations balance the potential benefits and expanded use of telemedicine with the importance of maintaining the patient-physician relationship and patient safety,” Hilary Daniel from American College…
Comparing tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil and cyclophosphamide, tacrolimus was the most efficacious. Also, biosimilars may soon be easier to differentiate…