Recent News

  • Obesity, Surgery, and Optimizing Patient Care

    Eric Dein, MD
    Haque and Goodman
    Rheumatologic care involves multidisciplinary approaches and collaboration with specialties to treat complex, systemic diseases. While many Pods at RheumNow Live are disease specific, the Pod II focused on Advancing Practice on important and emerging areas affecting rheumatologic patients. This session focused on two major areas of need: obesity and peri-operative management.
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RT @ericdeinmd #RNL26 RA-ILD Jeff Sparks ILD pooled prevalence 0.11 Sparks: "prevalence is high but not so high that we don't screen everyone," means lots of subclinical ILD Subtypes: UIP 50-60%, fibrotic NSIP 30-40%, inflammatory Less common: LIP, DIP, RB-ILD, DAD

Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)

RT @Gibson_RheumPAC GLP-1 receptor agonists do more than promote weight loss. They impact insulin resistance, inflammation, cardiovascular risk—and may influence musculoskeletal disease. #RNL26 https://t.co/ypKnOJojAm
Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)
RT @Gibson_RheumPAC Obesity doesn’t just increase risk of rheumatic diseases-it worsens outcomes. Patients with obesity have higher disease activity, poorer biologic response, and 20–25% lower remission rates in inflammatory arthritis. #RNL26

Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)

We are Doctors, Not Providers! With apologies to Shakespeare, names are important. In health care, they can have ethical significance. The American College of Physicians (ACP) is concerned about the use of the term provider to describe physicians. https://t.co/Vf6Wx0w28d https://t.co/RXTTFq34Rj

Links:

Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)
Staying Ahead of Spondyloarthritis The diagnosis and treatment of spondyloarthritis can present challenging clinical scenarios for rheumatologists. At RheumNow Live, Pod IV focused on "Staying Ahead of Spondyloarthritis." https://t.co/hZeqYC7wi3 https://t.co/2eKEueAukY

Links:

Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)
Cockerell

Vasculitis

Richard Conway, MBBChBAO, PhD

Sunday’s vasculitis session at RNL26 was a fantastic update on inflamed blood vessels, large and small, by two experts in the field: rheumatologist Dr. Mike Putman and dermatopathologist Dr. Clay Cockerell.

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RT @richardPAconway Dr Sparks shows risk factors for RA-ILD. Important for diagnosis (and screening?) Focus interventions on the modifiable ones! #RNL26 https://t.co/lE9Mkbq8oh
Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)
RT @richardPAconway UIP is predominant radiologic pattern in RA-ILD. Contrast with our other diseases. But by no means exclusive - up to 50% of RA-ILD have a more inflammatory pattern. Important treatment implications! #RNL26 https://t.co/HmW1mz429i
Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)
RT @richardPAconway Updated data on RA-ILD from Olmstead County. Cumulative incidence of 15.3% over 20 years! #RNL26 https://t.co/wVrTc3QM6Y
Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)
RT @ericdeinmd Mucosal Hypothesis RA #RNL26 Demoruelle Mucosal origins of RA? Key sites of immune-environment interaction initiate local inflamm, becomes systemic Link of lung inflamm/immune dysregulation - ass w/ smoking, ILD NETs in lung drive RA path? Gut/oral microbes drive

Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)

Dr. Fleischman on lupus dz activity including SLEDAI, which you can use on practice. But not for practice are SLE-DAS, BILAG, BICLA, SRI-4, DORIS @RWCSmtg #RWCS26 https://t.co/7sOaE7SMht
Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)
Advances in RA-ILD Dr. Jeffrey Sparks gave a state of the art update on Advances in RA-ILD, many of which he and his group have played a big part in, on Saturday at RNL26. https://t.co/xO7hBRKeqE https://t.co/rs1MS08Svl

Links:

Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)
RT @ericdeinmd Mucosal Hypothesis RA #RNL26 Demoruelle ACPA can predate RA development Nam et al: non-specific jt pain: 42% developed RA in 12 mos Circiumaro et al: MSK complaints 38% devel RA in 36 mo APIPPRA: 29% at 12 mo, 37% at 24 mo, StopRA 18% in 12 mo, 33% at 36 mo https://t.co/DxGhhFL1gO
Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)
RT @Gibson_RheumPAC Nearly 50% of U.S. adults may meet criteria for obesity by 2030. For rheumatologists, it directly impacts disease activity, outcomes, and treatment response. #RNL26 https://t.co/cpy4LBBPHc
Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)
RT @gibson_RheumPAC Osteoarthritis affects 600 million people worldwide—yet we still have no approved disease-modifying therapies. A powerful opening to this talk on why OA drug development keeps missing the mark. https://t.co/wBUN3lux6X
Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)
doctor,black,power,up,optimist

We are Doctors, Not Providers!

Jack Cush, MD

With apologies to Shakespeare, names are important. In health care, they can have ethical significance. The American College of Physicians has published a new ethics/position policy paper proclaiming that the term ‘provider’ should not be used to describe physicians, and using the blanket term undermines physicians’ ethical responsibility, clinical integrity, and professionalism.

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Semaglutide ameliorates osteoarthritis via wt loss-independent mechanism. GLP-1R agonist exhibits OA chondroprotective effects in a mouse model of obesity by changing chondrocyte metabolism from glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation via the “GLP-1R-AMPK-PFKFB3” axis.

Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)

Study of 90 adolescents (46 w. Juvenile fibromyalgia (JFM) & 44 controls) finds that JFM pts have greater sensitivity to non-painful sensory stimuli, such as sounds and bright lights; such hypersensitivity is closely related to the severity of the disease and brain function https://t.co/KGqzRK6e4a
Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)
RT @richardPAconway Dr Sparks. RA-ILD is common. Pooled prevalence of 11% from recent meta-analysis. Less common than SSc or IIM, but more frequent than we think! #RNL26 https://t.co/mJSmMakSBM
Dr. John Cush @RheumNow (  View Tweet)

From the Blog

Advanced Practice Rheum

Difficult to Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis

Jack Cush, MD
D2T RA Cover
Dr. Cush addresses the management of difficult-to-treat rheumatoid arthritis (D2TRA).
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Podcasts

  • ANA Pollution (2.06.2026)
  • DERM on RheumNow PODCAST (January 2026)
  • RheumNow Live Preview (1.30.2026)
  • Emergencies, Independence & Hemorrhage (1.23.2026)
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Therapeutic Updates

The Impact of Obesity on Psoriatic Arthritis

Sponsored by Lilly Medical Affairs
Lilly February RX Update Revised Image
Image alt text: A person indoors raises one arm in a flexed pose while holding the elbow with the opposite hand. Is obesity common in your patients with PsA? Learn more about the intersection of disease pathogenesis between PsA and obesity and how weight intervention can affect PsA outcomes.
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