Chronic insomnia is a common complaint for patients with rheumatic diseases and conditions. In fact, sleep disturbances are among the most common symptoms of both fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with more than 50% of chronic pain patients reporting sleep disturbances. Pain combined with insomnia can lead to a vicious cycle, says Ruth Gentry, PhD,…
Researchers from California and Texas have identified a new genetic syndrome that is characterized by systemic autoimmune disease of the lung and joints. The syndrome is driven by a genetic variant of a vesicular transport protein and is the first documented association between intracellular transport and autoimmunity. Levi B. Watkin, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at Baylor…
For patients living with a chronic disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis, learning to manage and cope with the myriad adverse symptoms that accompany these diseases is key to improving quality of life and helping reduce the cost burden of these illnesses on the healthcare system. One important way rheumatologists can help is by…
Although close collaboration with a variety of specialists outside of rheumatology is important, you could make the case for rheumatologists and pulmonologists having to work together even more closely. If lung symptoms are severe and not under control, the results could be fatal. However, the question sometimes is when to refer—even when there are not…
Questions, concerns and spirited debate have surrounded the Graduate Medical Education (GME) system for decades. The program that trains nearly 120,000 physicians per year is under constant scrutiny.1 Changes to the political landscape, combined with ongoing efforts by health industry payers and regulators to squeeze inefficiency out of the system, have kept the GME in…
A report from the Institute of Medicine that gives new diagnostic criteria for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and recommends a new name for the disorder received mixed reviews from rheumatologists and other physicians.1 “Diagnosing ME/CFS often is a challenge … the new diagnostic criteria will make it easier for clinicians to recognize and accurately…
The beep of the cellphone text got me off the armchair. I had been feeling cozy and comfortable. Outside the window, it was a blissful winter wonderland—the one, I believe, Nat King Cole intended when recording “The Christmas Song.” But at the same time, I was anxious to hear whether my clinic would be canceled…
Case You’ve been asked to see an inpatient for a rheumatologic consultation. After seeing the patient, you enter an initial consult note in the electronic medical record (EMR). The next day, when you write a follow-up note for this patient, you copy part of your assessment and plan from your prior note. Soon after you…
Jonathan Hausmann, MD, a pediatric and adult rheumatology fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital, remembers seeing a patient with a red, swollen and tender big toe early in his fellowship and diagnosing his patient with gout. He was happy to be able to help the patient, and he called in…
Bonus: Listen to excerpts from our conversation with Dr. Weinblatt. Michael Weinblatt, MD, is the co-director of clinical rheumatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, past president of the American College of Rheumatology, and co-director of the ACR Winter Rheumatology Symposium at Snowmass, Colo. Those are…