Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can be defined as a chronic autoimmune systemic inflammatory condition characterized by symmetrical polyarthritis. Typically, patients present with pain, stiffness and warmth of the affected joints. The condition can result in extra-articular features, adding to disability, and may eventually lead to premature death, especially if not treated early and appropriately.1,2 Over the…
Diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) early in the disease process is ideal, because treatments are more likely to be effective and less damage will occur. Guidelines from the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) state that using newer biologic medications, in addition to more aggressive dosing of traditional medications, is…
Every so often, a major scientific breakthrough profoundly alters the trajectory of scientific research. In the 1960s, microbiologists sparked the recombinant-DNA revolution with the discovery that bacteria have innate immune systems based on restriction enzymes. These enzymes bind and cut invading viral genomes at specific short sequences, and scientists rapidly repurposed them to cut and…
PARIS (Reuters)—One person has been left brain dead and five others are in a serious condition after taking part in a clinical trial in western France of an experimental medicine from an unnamed drug company, the French health ministry said on Friday, Jan. 15. The ministry did not say what the medicine was intended to be used…
(Reuters)—Three large U.S. venture capital firms are betting that hospitals will buy into a new service designed to help healthcare providers treat their patients more like upscale hotels treat their customers. The new company, called Docent Health, is creating software and mobile applications that will help organize and monitor every aspect of an individual’s hospital…
Sarilumab is proving effective for treating RA. In a clinical trial, pregabalin did not meet its endpoint for treating post-traumatic peripheral neuropathic pain. And a 12-hour ibuprofen patch is in development…
“The lived experience with RA is itself a valuable form of expertise,” writes Dr. Liana Fraenkel, MD, MPH, and her colleagues in their latest research. To examine the value of this expertise and how it can be incorporated into clinical practice guidelines, researchers developed 18 questions for which two panels—one physician dominated and one comprising entirely patients—would develop recommendations. For a majority of these questions, the patient panel made the same recommendations as the physician panel, with similar recommendation strengths…
I am honored, humbled and excited to serve as your ACR president. I’d like to share the following background information to illustrate the diverse set of life experiences I draw from to represent the ACR membership effectively. Personal Background Thanks to my mom, who was born and raised in Guatemala, I am bilingual in Spanish…
My dear friends, we come to praise Caesar. As we march toward 2016, we ought to acknowledge the great Roman emperor’s role in creating a proper calendar. At the start of Caesar’s reign, the calendar year lasted 355 days, 10¼ days fewer than the time it took the earth to fully orbit the sun.1 Although…
In medicine, as in all other areas of human endeavor, we cannot really understand where we are if we don’t understand how we arrived here. American rheumatology traces its origins nine decades back to Europe, when the International Committee on Rheumatism was founded by Jan van Breeman in 1925 at a European meeting of medical…