A common case scenario in our practice in North Dakota is a woman with rheumatoid arthritis on methotrexate monotherapy. She is a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate people and lives 90 miles from our rheumatology clinic. She currently has moderate disease activity, indicating the need for additional treatment. She does not have her own…
Rheumatology giant Frederick Wolfe, MD, passed away Sept. 5, 2023, in Wichita, Kan. The rheumatology community mourns his loss. Fred was born July 1, 1936, in New York. He graduated from Queens College, N.Y., in 1958, and was a social worker for several years. He earned his medical degree in 1966 from the State University…
In Japan, ozoralizumab will soon be available as a 30 mg subcutaneous auto-injection to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
A Roshi (i.e., master) apparently said that in Zen, “there is nothing to believe and everything to discover.” Interestingly enough, I have never been able to confirm who actually said that, which makes this saying about belief and discovery particularly apt. Regardless, I think about those words at least twice a day when I am…
Your patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) isn’t responding well enough to methotrexate, and you both agree it’s time to consider a biologic or targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD). But which one should you choose? In a treat-to-target era, we’re fortunate to have a variety of RA therapies at our disposal. Clinical practice guidelines from…
Discussions between clinicians and their patients about complementary aspects of their care just got easier with the release of the 2022 ACR Guideline for Exercise, Rehabilitation, Diet, and Additional Integrative Interventions for Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Since 2006, the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) has increasingly driven clinicians to focus on and improve quality. Quality measures help clinicians measure how well they treat their patients. By tracking their performance, clinicians can identify opportunities to improve patient care while meeting federal reporting requirements. Breaking Down Quality Measures The CMS has…
TLL-018, a Janus kinase 1/tyrosine kinase 2 inhibitor, proved more effective for treating patients with RA than tofacitinib, according to a study by Zeng et al.
My patients ask me almost daily what kind of diet they should be on, or if there are certain supplements they should try. And a growing amount of evidence shows lifestyle and dietary factors may contribute to disease risk and outcomes in rheumatic disease. Thus, rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals are being called upon by patients…
Since the Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 overturning 50 years of precedent protecting abortion as a constitutional right (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization), states are enacting and implementing new laws to regulate abortion, and medical organizations and healthcare providers are assuming the large task of understanding what the new laws mean for their…