On Sept. 11, 2001, I was at work. I had accepted a position as an assistant chief of service (ACS) for the Department of Medicine, which is Hopkins-speak for a hybrid position that involves all the administrative duties of a chief resident, plus the responsibility of an attending. For a year, I admitted patients to…
Researcher identified multiple factors for flare, including non-use of methotrexate, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who had switched from intravenous (IV) tocilizumab to subcutaneous tocilizumab.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Tofacitinib significantly reduces the number of flares in children with polyarticular course juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), according to the first phase-3 clinical trial to assess the efficacy of a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor in JIA. JIA is a heterogeneous group of chronic conditions with no known cause that develop before age 16…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—In patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA), telehealth-delivered exercise and diet programs are superior to electronic health information for reducing pain and improving function, although the contribution of diet is modest, a randomized trial shows.1 “This research provides evidence from a large clinical trial to help tease out how much benefit dietary weight…
The ACR highlights essential information for providers for 2022 MIPS reporting in the 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule, published Nov. 2.
ACR CONVERGENCE 2021—Many of the effects of childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (cSLE) and vasculitis carry into adulthood and present adult rheumatologists with key differences in managing these patients after their transition from a pediatric to an adult provider. “The young adult with childhood-onset lupus is similar in many ways to adults with lupus, but there…
During the ACR Convergence 2021 Review Course, Rohit Aggarwal, MD, MS, provided an update on idiopathic inflammatory myopathy.
The new rheumatology-specific Merit-Based Incentive Payment System Value Pathway will focus on measures that most rheumatologists already track. The model should streamline reporting and better target quality improvements.
A special article in the December issue of Arthritis & Rheumatology summarizes the current understanding of the cardiac toxicity of HCQ and CQ.
The Basic and Clinical Research Conference session on Rheumatology Complications of Emerging Viral Infections/SARS-CoV-2 presented findings from numerous studies that help explain some of the idiosyncrasies of COVID-19.