Dr. Jack Cush reviews this past week's news and journal reports from RheumNow.com. Good news is that nearly 99% of adult rheumatology positions matched! But the challenge is that 45% of pediatric fellowship programs and 39% of pediatric rheum slots were unfilled in the 2024 NRMP match.

While adult rheumatology programs continue to have high match rates, pediatric rheumatology programs remain less popular.The National Residency Matching Program announced yesterday that the 2024 rheumatology fellowship match filled 97.6% (124/127) of programs, and 98.9% (273/276) of rheumatology fellowship positions. This is on par with last years (2023) adult rheumatology match wherein 97.8% (265/271) of the rheumatology fellow positions were filled.

In this week's podcast, Dr. Jack Cush reviews the ACR Convergence 2023 meeting and proposes how to best learn at your next large medical meeting.

Drs. Jack Cush and Arthur Kavanaugh discuss highlights and key takeaways from ACR 23.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews this past week's news on RheumNow.com and suggests a learning plan for those wanting to consume the upcoming ACR Convergence 2023 meeting. 

A recent CDC reports estimates that in 2019–2021, 21% of U.S. adults (53.2 million) have physician diagnosed arthritis. Now, an updated report shows a larger number (~33%) of U.S. veterans having diagnosed arthritis. Compared to nonveterans, this prevalence was double in men, and 60% higher in women.

Routine hand and foot radiographs in more than 700 patients being evaluated for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) made almost no difference in diagnosing the condition nor in predicting its course, Dutch researchers said.

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.

Safety risks found in a postmarketing trial with the Janus-associated kinase (JAK) inhibitor tofacitinib (Xeljanz) appear to have influenced prescribing patterns across the class for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system, researchers found.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews RheumNow's top entries the PMR Campaign, news, journal reports and regulatory actions.

UCB announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved bimekizumab-bkzx (Bimzelx)) for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults who needing systemic therapy or phototherapy.

This week the CDC's MMWR reports that during 2019–2021, 21.2% of U.S. adults (53.2 million) reported "diagnosed arthritis".

On Oct. 6, 2023, Novartis announced the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an intravenous (IV) formulation of secukinumab (Cosentyx) for use in treating adults with psoriatic arthritis (PsA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA).

Physician members of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), care team members of the Association of Rheumatology Professionals (ARP), and patients living with rheumatic diseases convened on Capitol Hill this week for the annual Advocates for Arthritis conference and to support legislative so

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. 

A machine learning approach was applied to two different population cohorts and was shown to be effective at the early identification of undiagnosed psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

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".

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.