On July 12th the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its proposed rule changes for the 2019 Medicare physician fee schedule.  This year, CMS has combined the Medicare physician fee schedule proposed rule with recommendations for the Quality Payment Program (QPP), whic

New research from a UK study suggests that nonresponse to oral or subcutaneous MTX was seen in 43% and is predicted by seronegativity, higher disease activity measures and higher anxiety scores.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.  Fateful outcomes in Rheumatology, what happens to Seronegatives, IL-23 fails, MRI progression, Not all inflammatory back pain becomes SpA:

Pisetsky and colleagues have reported in the Annals of Rheumatic Disease that ANA tests done on established SLE patients may yield surprisingly disparate results.

While ANA negative lupus was a problem of old assays and the loss of ANA positivity may be seen with chronicity or age, most rheumatologists believe that ANA positivity is an absolute requirement for the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus.

At the EULAR 2016 meeting, new EULAR recommendations for the management of Behçet's disease (BD) were presented.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews selected news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com.

A recent Deloitte analysis of the biosimilar market in the USA suggests there are defined obstacles to biosimilar use that must be dealt with, especially as the current administration is seeking to lower drug prices and reduce out-of-pocket costs for US consumers.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews EULAR 2018 and the past week's news and reports from RheumNow.com, including DMARDs in OA, the price of Penicillamine, Infections when ANCA+, CV outcomes in gout, NSAIDs in Pregnancy and Seropostive vs. Seronegative Outcomes.

MMWR reports that approximately 46 million persons (14%) in the United States live in nonmetropolitan counties, where there is a higher prevalence of obesity-associated chronic diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, and arthritis.

This EULAR 2018 Podcast is a compilation of audio clips from EULAR in Amsterdam.

Click HERE to listen.

You can also listen on iTunes, Soundcloud or Stitcher.

The annual EULAR meeting just came to an end today. Rooms are gradually emptying out. People look both content to have updated their knowledge and relieved that four very busy days have concluded. Time to summarize.

I was delighted to see that investigators presenting work at EULAR 2018 haven’t lost interest in our old friend methotrexate, with a number of abstracts examining issues of safety, dose and route of administration.

This EULAR 2018 Podcast is a compilation of audio clips from EULAR in Amsterdam.

Click HERE to listen.

You can also listen on iTunes, Soundcloud or Stitcher. 

We're crazy busy at EULAR all week.  Instead of this review, we recommend that you tune into our multiple podcasts from experts and faculty attending EULAR 2018 in Amsterdam.  You can find these on iTunes, SoundCloud or Stitcher.

Each year I attend I hope that I’m going to come across something that changes my practice and this year, I think I may have struck gold at a session on Giant Cell arteritis at EULAR in Amsterdam.

This session was an update on the management of osteoporosis given by Professor Christian Roux from France.

Highlights from Day 2 of the EULAR meeting in Amsterdam include high MBDA scores in ACPA negative RA predicts remission; characterization of difficult RA; and gender differences in psoriatic responses to TNF inhibitors. 

This EULAR 2018 Podcast is a compilation of audio clips from EULAR in Amsterdam.

Not a surprise to anyone anymore, increased risk of cardiovascular disease poses a danger of significant morbidity and mortality in patients underlying inflammatory arthritides.