When former ACR President Joseph Flood, MD, tapped Deborah Dyett Desir, MD, to volunteer for an ACR committee, he might have assumed that her preference would be to serve on the Committee on Rheumatologic Care or its Insurance Subcommittee. After all, Dr. Desir is in private practice at the Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center PC in…
The ACR and a number of other physician medical associations are lobbying for an immediate legislative fix to a piece of the MACRA law that factors high-cost Part B drugs into a rheumatology practice’s Medicare reimbursement rate through the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). This change, which goes into effect immediately, will impact practices in…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Most recent clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) from the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) are based on expert opinion and lack A-level evidence in support of their recommendations, researchers report. “I’d like to highlight not just for providers but also for patients and policymakers that, even though we in the United States are…
While medical advances in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have led to improvements in disease control and quality of life for patients worldwide, the rate for stable remission remains low.1 Management of RA symptoms is traditionally accomplished through a combination of medications and nonpharmacological interventions.2 This approach can prevent the development of secondary adverse health outcomes. Two…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Early oral bisphosphonate use is associated with a lower risk of fractures among oral-glucocorticoid users, researchers from Canada report. Bisphosphonates are commonly used for glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis, but their efficacy has been established only in primary osteoporosis, where the mechanism of action of bone loss differs from that seen with glucocorticoid use. Dr….
The FDA accepted for review a supplemental biologics license application for denosumab to treat patients with glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis…
Deborah Dyett Desir, MD, vividly remembers her first day as an undergraduate student at Harvard University, Boston. When her parents helped her move into the dorm, her mother, Betty, handed her a beautiful begonia. “My response was, ‘What on earth am I going to do with this plant?’” she says, recalling how she examined the…
Case Ms. A is an 82-year-old woman who presented to the rheumatology office for evaluation of osteoporosis. She had been diagnosed with postmenopausal osteoporosis at age 62 after sustaining a right wrist fracture. She was started on alendronate 70 mg weekly and reported medication compliance. At age 79, she sustained an atraumatic right femur fracture….
New research in mice shows that sclerostin deficiency may play a significant role in bone formation, possibly despite skeletal age. In the study, sclerostin-deficient mice more readily formed cortical bone and had increases in periosteal bone formation rates, as well as increased expression of the Wnt inhibitor Dkk1, than controls…
In many respects, this is the beginning of the golden age of rheumatology. Diagnostic and therapeutic approaches are now available that have radically altered for the better the lives of people with diseases that were considered virtually untreatable just a few years ago. The rheumatologist’s approach to patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the spondyloarthropathies, osteoporosis and…