Early referral and diagnosis remains a challenge for many who care for patients with musculoskeletal complaints.  This is especially so in those with chronic low back pain (LBP) and the minority who will have ankylosing spondylitis or axial spondyloarthritis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) routinely surveys the population prevalence of certain chronic disorders, including arthritis.

Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) may be complicated with life-threatening conditions requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission.  The outcomes of such complications may be dire, but there are few series addressing the outcomes of those admitted to the ICU. 

Doctors have an interesting problem. They have an ingrained professional obsessive-compulsive habit; they fixate on the care of individual patients and on the science of healing. This is an admirable trait; it results in high-quality care. However, when physicians need to change their attention from healer to leader, from medicine to the business of medicine, from healthcare to the healthcare system, they falter. Stuck in silos, they fail to adjust their focus. They resist systemic innovation. Because they cannot flip, they flop.

Watch Dr. Jack Cush cover ten highlights from this week on RheumNow.com.

Numerous guidelines (ACR, ACIP/CDC, ATS, NICE) all call for timely vaccinations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and those receiving immunosuppressives or biologics. 

Video recap of highlights from this week at RheumNow.com.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the rheumatology highlights from the news, media, and journals from this past week:

The American College of Cardiology has released its expert consensus guidance regarding the use of non-statin therapies to lower cholesterol in high-risk patients.

Highlights from this week on RheumNow.com

A recent report from the United States Bone and Joint Initiative (USBJI) estimates that 126.6 million Americans (one in two adults) are affected by a musculoskeletal (MSK) condition; a number on par with the number of Americans living with a chronic lung or heart conditions.

In the March 15th issue of JAMA, Chavalarias and coworkers describe the evolution of the “P value” and its use in biomedical research in the last 25 years.  (CItation Source http://buff.ly/22L0pG7)

RheumNow sadly notes that rheumatology icon and educator Dr. Evelyn Hess passed away on December 25, 2015.  She leaves behind a legacy career and a legion of clinicians, teachers, researchers and leaders whom she taught and inspired.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that in the last year (January 2015 to February 2016), they have identified and confirmed 116 cases of the Zika virus among US residents, with nearly all having traveled to endemic regions.

Most medical school faculty don't have time to observe third- and fourth-year medical students doing a complete medical exam? In When Medical Students Push Back, Westby Fisher, MD, FACC, offers his take on unnecessary testing and this particular issue.

Highlights from this week at RheumNow.com:

The ACR is inviting members and rheumatologists to comment on their proposal to develop recommendations for the "Perioperative Management of Rheumatic Disease Medications in Total Joint Arthroplasty of the Hip and Knee".   

Lancet has reported the results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of tocilizumab in patients with new-onset giant cell arteritis (GCA).

Highlights from this week on RheumNow:

Three million Americans are diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome each year.