PHILADELPHIA—William “Bill” R. Palmer, MD, MACR, was the first board-certified rheumatologist in Omaha, Neb., where he spent his entire 43-year clinical career and established himself as a great clinician, mentor and educator. Although Dr. Palmer passed away from metastatic thyroid cancer in August 2021, his memory lives on through his physician colleagues and at ACR…
PHILADELPHIA—One of the great advancements in the field of rheumatology in recent years has been the increased understanding of various stages of disease in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), including what is termed subclinical rheumatoid arthritis. However, questions remain regarding whether to treat patients with subclinical disease and whether treatment of these patients has implications in preventing…
Take the challenge. CPT codes: 99214, 71045, 86580 ICD-10: M05.79, R05, R06.2 History—Detailed: The history of present illness (HPI) was extended; the review of systems (ROS) was extended; and the past medical, family and social history (PFSH) were documented. All three components of the HPI, ROS and PFSH are needed to achieve the detailed history…
History A 39-year-old woman returns for follow-up for her rheumatoid arthritis. She has positive rheumatoid factor, but no organ or systemic involvement. She has joint swelling and pain in her left hand, right elbow and right knee. Her pain is at an 8 on a 10-point scale. She states the pain is worse in the…
The Rheumatology Research Foundation has been actively involved with the NIH’s Accelerating Medicines Partnership for Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (AMP RA/SLE) program, launched in 2014 as a public–private partnership to spur development of new therapeutic options for RA and lupus. Recently, the NIH released new datasets that will help clinical investigators accelerate therapies…
For people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), fatigue can be a debilitating symptom that interferes with daily life and significantly reduces quality of life. Managing fatigue can be difficult; it is linked to disease activity and a host of other conditions that commonly accompany RA, such as depression, sleep problems and obesity. A new study, however,…
The year was 1978. I was a newly married, 25-year-old registered nurse working on a medical unit at Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh, Wis. I began to notice morning stiffness, increasing fatigue, and bilateral heel and ankle pain. Every step hurt as I walked down the halls to care for my patients. My diagnosis was…
SAN DIEGO—The next era of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) therapy could involve combining anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drugs with drugs that target molecules regulating the destructive potential of synovial fibroblasts, or even with anti-angiogenic drugs, said a pioneer of RA biologics therapy at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting Nov. 3–8. Ravinder N. Maini, MD, professor of…
SAN DIEGO—In just two decades, precision medicine has gone from futuristic concept to realistic toolbox for clinical physicians. At the 2017 ACR Clinical Research Conference on Nov. 3, the Precision Medicine in Rheumatic Diseases: Hopes and Challenges lecture featured rheumatologists and experts on genetics, genomics, pharmacogenetics and big data who spoke about the latest research…
SAN DIEGO—Top researchers gathered for a review course at the start of the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in November to describe new research, their own treatment strategies and new ways of thinking about an array of rheumatic diseases. Here are the highlights: Raynaud’s & Other Digit Problems When a patient walks into your clinic with…