Research has explored the connection between Sjögren’s syndrome and intestinal dysbiosis associated with ocular mucosal disease. A recent study found that oral antibiotics and desiccating stress lead to extreme changes in the gut microbiota in mice. In patients with Sjögren’s syndrome, researchers found that patients with the most severe keratoconjunctivitis sicca and combined systemic and ocular disease had the lowest diversity of stool microbiota…
(Reuters Health)—State programs that monitor narcotic prescriptions help prevent 10 opioid-overdose deaths a day in the U.S., yet improvements could save another two people a day, a new study finds. States with the most robust programs—ones that tracked a greater number of potentially addictive medications and updated their databases at least weekly—saw the biggest drops…
Defining new therapeutic targets and developing new therapies are among the goals of the 2016–2020 ACR National Research Agenda. So, too, is understanding early disease states, defining triggers of autoimmunity and examining disparities in access to medication and treatment.1 Charting a Course Every five years, the Committee on Research (COR) is tasked with helping chart the…
Updated projections suggest that arthritis and arthritis-attributable activity limitation will remain large and growing problems for clinical and public health systems, which must plan and create policies and resources to address these future needs. By 2040, the number of U.S. adults with doctor-diagnosed arthritis is projected to increase 49% to 78.4 million. Can the healthcare system accommodate these projected increases? Not without changes. By 2025, the expected demand for rheumatologists is expected to exceed supply by 2,576 adult and 33 pediatric rheumatologists…
Bone health has been successfully improved by using probiotics to influence the gut microbiome in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. New research has gained insight into this process, uncovering that sex steroid depletion increases gut permeability resulting in inflammation and pathology in mice. Treatment with probiotics also prevents this increase in gut permeability and bone loss associated with sex steroid depletion…
According to a new report, rheumatology remains one of the lowest-paid specialties in medicine—despite an average pay increase of 12% over the past year. And only 44% of rheumatologists would choose the field again. Anne Bass, MD, says administrative red tape and other factors contribute to the lack of satisfaction…
CHICAGO—Celiac disease—the gluten-induced illness that can be seen alongside rheumatic diseases—has been seen much more commonly over the past 20 years than it was previously, but the illness can come with questions that are not always straightforward, an expert said at the ACR’s State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium. The disease, in which the small intestine becomes inflamed…
An interdisciplinary and collaborative environment is a critical factor for the advancement of basic science and clinical research in the academic environment, says William J. Koopman, MD, former director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB’s) Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology. And in 1977, when he was being recruited by Division Director J….
Medicine has traditionally been an apprenticeship model. The most elemental and constructive method of passing on knowledge is the mentor–mentee relational experience. Mentorship encompasses not only the role of teacher, but also that of coach, role model, advisor and confidante. Matthew J. Koster, MD, rheumatology fellow and instructor in medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., can…
Forty-five years ago, a computer engineer in Boston sent an electronic message between two computers some 10 feet apart. It took another 10 years or so before the electronic mail message was dubbed email—a term now, perhaps, more ubiquitous than any other in the lexicon of modern communications. Despite the seemingly definitive place email communication…