All News
Day 2 Report - ACR Plenaries: Changing the Practice of Rheumatology
Over the years of navigating the annual meeting, I found the sessions with the most impact to my practice were the Plenary Sessions. During these sessions, the latest research is presented, new ideas are floated, and old myths debunked. Here are the top ACR2023 Plenary abstracts I found impactful for my practice.
Read Article
ACR Reacts to 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule
The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) expressed concern that the conversion factor included in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) CY 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program final rule is insufficient to address rising inflation.
Read Article
Optimal Management of de Quervain Tenosynovitis
The treatment of de Quervain tenosynovitis (DQT) was examined by systematic review in JAMA, suggesting that local (US-guided) corticosteroid injection plus a thumb spica immobilization was associated with significant pain-relieving and functional benefits.
Read Article
Sleep Apnea Smart Watches (10.13.2023)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal reports and regulatory approvals from this past week on RheumNow.com.
Read Article
TNR: PMR Diagnosis and Monitoring
Panelists Dr. Claire Owen, Stephen Paget, Anisha Dua and Jack Cush discuss diagnosis and monitoring in PMR during this week's Tuesday Night Rheumatology.
Read Article
RheumNow Podcast with Special Guest Dr. Michael Weinblatt (9.22.2023)
Dr. Jack Cush is joined by Dr. Michael Weinblatt as they discuss this weeks news and journal reports, including difficult RA, HLA typing and abatacept responses and new regulatory decisions.
Read Article
RheumNow Podcast – with Special Guest Dr. Janet Pope (9.8.2023)
This week, Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news with special guest, Dr. Janet Pope. They discuss "Not-non-Inferior", large scale genetic screening, Zoster risk w/ newer lupus drugs, tapering, RA referral problems and the TNR webinar session on "ORAL Surveillance Revisited".
Read Article
Woeful Rheumatology Referrals
Early diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis (IA) is rooted in patient (self or MD) referrals. A recent analysis shows only a minority of rheumatology referrals had inflammatory arthritis, with only 21% were seen within the first 6 weeks of symptoms.
Read Article
Dr. Naomi Rothfield (1929 – 2023)
Medical schools are rife with mentors. In my rheumatology fellowship I had tow great mentors, Peter Lipsky and Morris Ziff. They introduced me, and other young rheumatologists, to other rheumatology giants and mentors, including Dr. Naomi Rothfield - who they often spoke of as a leader worth following. She was engaging and inclusive. And she stood out as one of the few strong rheumatology department chairs in the 1980s.
Naomi F. Rothfield, MD, famed leader from the University of Connecticut, passed away on Sunday, July 2, 2023, at the age of 94.
WSJ: Do Younger or Older Doctors Get Better Results?
A recent Wall St. Journal essay (by AB Jena and C Worsham) suggests that a physician’s effectiveness has less to do with age than with how many patients they see and how well they stay up to date on research.
Read Article
Patient Perspectives on Telemedicine Use During the Pandemic
Research from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance included surveys and data gathering from rheumatology patients.
Read Article
Rheumatology Journals Rife With Faulty Conflict-of-Interest
More often than not, conflict-of-interest disclosures in three major rheumatology journals didn't match records in the U.S. government's Open Payments database, researchers found.
Read Article
Dr. Joseph Flood (1952-2023) - Past ACR President
Dr Joseph Flood, a past president of the American College of Rheumatology, passed away on July 13, 2023 at age 70 due to complications of liver disease, diabetes and liver cancer.
Read Article
ICYMI: ChatGPT - A Boon or Threat to Scientific Publication?
ChatGPT is a new, artificial intelligence chatbot that has dramatically changed the digital worlds of education, research, graphic design, statistics and more. While this AI driven platform has the untold potential in generating written content, there is considerable concern in assuring that human-generated content of research, education and publishing has veracity.
Read Article
ICYMI: 25 Great Women in Rheumatology
I reached out to many leaders in rheumatology and asked: who are the great women in rheumatology who should be recognized? This was prompted by a smart article in Annals of Rheumatic Disease written by Drs. Tuhina Neogi (Boston) and Nicola Dalbeth (N. Zealand), entitled "Where are the women ‘Heroes and Pillars of Rheumatology’?
Read Article
Dr. K. Frank Austen (1928-2023)
Rheumatology mourns the loss of a historic leader in the field, Dr. K. Frank Austen, who died at his home in Maine on June 23, 2023, at the age of 95.
Read Article
Scary Outcomes with Systemic Sclerosis Sine Scleroderma
The hallmark of systemic sclerosis is scleroderma, but less than 10% of SSc patients have sine scleroderma (ssSSc). A EUSTAR database review compared the manifestations and outcomes of ssSSC to limited cutaneous SSc and diffuse cutaneous SSc.
Read Article
Why Patients Don't Take Medicines
About 60% of adults aged 18 and over reported taking at least one prescription medication in 2021, with 36% reporting taking three or more. Out-of-pocket costs on retail drugs rose 4.8% to $63 billion in 2021.
Read Article
Are bDMARDs, tsDMARDs and biosimilar DMARDs cost effective?
Treatment advances with new biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs), targeted synthetic DMARDs (tsDMARDs) and biosimilar DMARDs (bsDMARDs) have proven efficacy and safety; but does their increased cost yield commensurate benefits in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and high disease activity?
Read Article
