On a highway traversed by cement trucks and Beetle-Bug auto-rickshaws we travel north from Bangalore, India, for a house call. It is 2007, and the city leaves us grudgingly. Between fields of loose chocolate soil and sprigs of beans poking skyward, the skeletons of homes and businesses rise; armies of workers lay brick from wooden…
Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) is a necrotizing vasculitis, predominantly involving medium-sized arteries, that causes systemic disease, and, less commonly, cutaneous-limited disease. The population prevalence for PAN ranges from 2 to 33 per million.1-3 Estimates vary due to the increased recognition and classification of other forms of vasculitides over time and variation in the regional prevalence of…
The society is helping Maryland rheumatologists navigate the state’s unique healthcare financing model, which sets statewide rates for all insurers for any service provided at hospitals.
The increased use of telemedicine that began in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to provide new ways to expand patient care in rheumatology.
The 2022 Rheumatic Disease Report Card found that many states can improve access to care, affordability & activity for their residents living with rheumatic diseases.
Saddle Nose & Cauliflower Ear Deformities in Relapsing Polychondritis These images depict a 32-year-old man who presented with five weeks of left-sided hearing loss, weight loss and discomfort in the nose, ear, chest wall and knee. He had an erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) of 120 mm/hr, and a C-reactive protein level of 225.4 mg/L. The…
It’s 11 a.m. on a Wednesday. You see a new patient in your fellow’s clinic with impressive physical findings, including a prominent skin rash and deforming arthritis. The patient has been to many doctors and is frustrated that her condition remains undiagnosed and untreated. You thoroughly examine the patient, present her case to your attending…
Hurricane Ida intensified in the last two weeks of August 2021, battering the Cayman Islands and Cuba before hitting the Louisiana coast as a Category 4 storm just before Labor Day weekend.1 At landfall, Ida blasted southern Louisiana with maximum sustained winds of 150 knots, then turned in a north-northwestern direction to hit the New…
I wouldn’t normally look to professional basketball as a model for healthcare, but sometimes answers come from unexpected places. The observation that elite athletes are not like you and me—medically speaking—is not new. In the second century AD, the pontifex maximus in Pergamum recognized this fact and appointed Claudius Galen physician to the gladiators, making…
At my first Advocacy Leadership Conference as a member of the ACR’s Insurance Subcommittee, I discovered the power of stories from the clinic and how lawmakers value clinicians’ input on healthcare legislation.