About 30 years ago, early in his career as a rheumatologist, Dirkjan van Schaardenburg, PhD, says patients with osteoarthritis experienced terrible problems with inflammation. The landscape has improved to the point that “people can live with it now,” he says. But they still need help. For example, osteoarthritis affects 7% of the global population, according…
Checking blood levels of commonly used disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) has gained widespread attention in the rheumatology community, even resulting in a recent guidance document from EULAR for biologics.1 Although a highly useful tool, drug level measurement in rheumatology is not without challenges; many of our drugs violate the basic principles of pharmacology that we…
Editor’s note: Originally published on Oct. 12, 2023. Updated Feb. 28, 2024, to add fact sheets. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a leading cause of medical errors and poor care is a lack of communication between healthcare providers.1 As healthcare has evolved, the importance of holistic care has become more…
Throughout her medical training, Noelle A. Rolle, MBBS, encountered many patients struggling with both rheumatic disease and issues of health equity and access to care. This drew her to rheumatology and, now, to lead the ACR’s Collaborative Initiatives Committee.
Intermittent fasting—defined as alternating between cycles of eating and going without food over a given period of time—has become popular with individuals seeking to lose weight or balance their lifestyle in recent years. During Ramadan (a period based on the Gregorian calendar that changes from year to year), able-bodied Muslims are obligated to observe a…
Lifestyle medicine interventions, such as dietary changes, movement and mindfulness, in combination with conventional treatment, may help alleviate symptoms of rheumatic disease, according to panelists at ACR Convergence 2023.
SAN DIEGO—In one presentation at Plenary Session 3, ACR Convergence 2023, Beth Wallace, MD, MSc, a staff physician at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Michigan, and an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, shared important data on the relationship between time-dependent cumulative glucocorticoid exposure and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in a cohort of veterans with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Rheumatologists who are outstanding researchers, educators and/or clinicians, who provide consistently exceptional care to patients, who have achieved a level of distinction in the field and who serve as role models for colleagues and trainees are highlighted in this recurring series. Fred Wigley, MD, MACR, is the Martha McCrory Professor of Medicine at the Johns…
This guidance from the ACR provides information about new remote physiologic monitoring (RPM) and remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM) treatment management codes
A study found the continuation of tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) treatment in patients with chronic rheumatic inflammatory diseases after pregnancy diagnosis was not associated with worse outcomes than those who discontinued treatment with TNFi’s.