Management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is complex. The ever-expanding availability of new drugs requires that rheumatologists and patients constantly consider treatment strategies and targets aimed at both disease control and symptom relief while remaining cognizant of the increasing high cost of emerging medications. Given such complexity, guidelines to inform rheumatologists about the most recent developments…
This year the ARHP Clinical Focus Course brings together experts in the field to provide an interprofessional approach to the management of systematic lupus erythematosus (SLE) to improve patient outcomes. The daylong course, titled Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Taming the Wolf—Salient Lessons from Practice and Research, which is offered on Nov. 4, will provide a case-based…
The levels of service within an evaluation and management (E/M) visit are based on the documentation of key components, which include history, physical examination and medical decision making. The history component is comparable to telling a story and should include a beginning and some form of development to adequately describe the patient’s presenting problem. To…
First Appearances I watched the old man, his back painfully bent, shuffle toward the scale. A blocky rigidity draped over him. His feet seemed stuck to the floor. His head hung heavily over his chest. Observing him from the end of the hallway, instead of a face, I saw only a mound of shaggy, matted…
For a rheumatology practice, rooming time can be leveraged to improve efficiency and patient care. Christie Bartels, MD, MS, and colleagues have studied this time frame and developed data-based tips and tools to decrease variation among staff and streamline practices…
If you speak to any advocate for rheumatology, each of us has an “Aha! moment,” when we learned the importance of advocacy. My own came a dozen years ago. I was meeting with a legislative aide to a local congressman who was a senior member of the committee overseeing Medicare. He introduced himself as the…
An international task force convened by the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ESCEO) recommends systematic repeated intra-articular hyaluronic acid (HA) injections as second-line treatment for patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). This is the first time a group of experts has made this recommendation, which is directed toward treatment of…
The first clinical practice guidelines for Sjögren’s syndrome have been released, the culmination of an initiative by the Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation.1 These standard-of-care recommendations are intended to provide consistency in practice patterns, inform coverage and reimbursement policies, lead to the design and implementation of educational programs, highlight the needs for future research and fill a…
Here’s a trivia question: Where were the big ideas for the field of biotechnology first discussed? Answer: At a since-demolished delicatessen in Waikiki Beach, Hawaii. Go figure. The year was 1972, and Stanley Cohen, MD, professor of medicine at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and Herbert Boyer, PhD, a former professor and biochemist at the…
Rheumatologists treating HIV patients in 2017 must think through many important factors as this population ages. As we continue to learn, rheumatologists must consider important drug–drug interactions, relatively uncommon rheumatological presentations of HIV, as well as specific diagnostic challenges. Working closely with infectious disease specialists is the best way to achieve optimum care for this…