We have often heard it said that opportunity arises from challenges. Challenge, of course, is really just a polite way of saying problem—and for our patients, problems abound when it comes to obtaining timely and affordable access to the rheumatologic care they need. Access in this context has many meanings: There is access to life-changing…
Imagine leaving the hospital after suffering a heart attack without being treated for hypertension or being started on a beta blocker. What would we think of the hospital where patients are never educated about the relationship between treating hypertension and reducing myocardial infarction and stroke risk? Unfortunately, this happens every day with osteoporosis and fractures…
Presentation A 30-year-old woman presented to her rheumatologist for left foot pain of three weeks’ duration. She was followed for systemic lupus erythematosus manifesting in arthritis and hemolytic anemia, as well as anti-nuclear antibody and Smith antibody positivity, and was treated with hydroxychloroquine and prednisone in the 2.5–10 mg per day range. She was symptom…
Dozens of rheumatology leaders met with more than 100 politicos on Capitol Hill in mid-May, per the ACR’s annual Advocacy Leadership Conference. Armed with research and advocacy training concerning a handful of important issues, rheumatologists, researchers, government affairs specialists and others met with federal lawmakers, legislative aides and correspondents. The two-day conference, which featured the…
On May 16, ACR and ARP leaders serving on the Board of Directors, Affiliate Society Council, Government Affairs Committee, Committee on Rheumatologic Care, RheumPAC and Insurance Subcommittee will go to Capitol Hill to advocate on behalf of the College’s membership and our patients. The group represents 31 states and the District of Columbia, and will…
The advent of quality-based healthcare, such as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), requires rheumatology professionals to demonstrate their practice is based on interventions supported by the best available evidence and that their practice, in turn, provides quality care. These requirements have increased the need for methods to measure and quantify…
Postmenopausal women are often told to consume more than 1,500 mg of calcium daily to reach neutral bone balance. But new research suggests this recommendation should be revised, finding no connection between dietary calcium intake and postmenopausal bone loss…
(Reuters Health)—For a wide range of diseases, diagnosis comes later in life for women than for men, according to a large Danish study. Researchers don’t know whether the later diagnoses are due to genetics, the environment, possible biases in the healthcare system—or some combination of reasons. The study of health data from 6.9 million Danish…
Practice-based evidence, like that in the RISE registry, can be used to describe trends in patient care, look at comparative effectiveness of interventions and much more.
CHICAGO—The 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting session on genetic mimics of rheumatic disease began with a description of a patient who presented with the symptoms of childhood-onset lupus but instead had a well-defined genetic disease: lysinuric protein intolerance (LPI). Lindsay Burrage, MD, PhD, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston,…