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Fibromyalgia Diagnosed by Two Simple Tests
Researchers from the Oregon Health Science Center have reported that fibromyalgia can be distinguished from chronic pain by primary care providers (PCPs) who employ two simple screening tests: BP cuff-evoked pain and a single patient question, and pain induced by pinching the Achilles tendon.&nbs
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The ACR17 RheumNow Week in Review - 1 December 2017
Dr Jack Cush reviews nighlights and news from the past 2 weeks on RheumNow.com. This week's report includes new drug approvals, disappointing ACR guidelines, Lyme & Zika, infertility, dermatomyositis skin outcomes and myositis-associated cancer testing.
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ACR Clinical Guidelines Flawed by Low Evidence
JAMA Internal Medicine has reported that recommendations and clinical practice guidelines from the American College of Rheumatology are often based on expert opinion, but lack rigorous (grade A) evidence to support many of their recommendations.
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Physician Visit Times Vary Worldwide
A metanalysis published in BMJ Open shows that for half of the world’s population, primary care doctor visits last less than five minutes and that the range is from 48 seconds in Bangladesh to 22.5 minutes in Sweden (US PCP visit averages at 20 minutes).
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Prevalence of Arthritis Grossly Underestimated
Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine have published a new report showing that arthritis affected 91 million adults in the US in 2015 or 37% of the poplulation. Their prevalence estimate is 68% higher than previously reported arthritis national estimates.
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Opioid Crisis Costs US $500 Billion
Reuters reports that the opioid crisis has cost the United States as much as $504 billion in 2015, based on a White House economists report released this week. The White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) said the toll from the opioid crisis represented 2.8% of gross dom
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RheumNow ACR 2017 Awards
The Annual Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology is a gargantuan educational and professional event that is on nearly everyone's radar each year. RheumNow had an expansive effort to cover this meeting and you can review the work of our faculty at ACR17.RheumNow.com. But we have decided to take this one step further and today we are announcing our 2017 RheumNow ACR Awards.
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ACR Award Recipients 2017
The American College of Rheumatology opened the 2017 meeting by inducting the new president (Dr. David Daikh) and officers and announcing its 2017 Award Winners. These recognitions are given annually to members who exhibit outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology.
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Podcast of ACR17 - Day 4
Care to learn what you missed at last weeks ACR 2017 meeting in San Diego? Here are 4 one hour audio podcasts - each with a compliation of 2-4 minute reports from Drs. Cush, Kavanaugh, the RheumNow Faculty and other rheumatology thought leaders and researchers. Another good way to learn from RheumNow.
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Podcast of ACR 17 - Day 3
Check out this compilation of our ACR17 Day 3 broadcasts, merged into a single one hour podcast !
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Podcast of ACR17 Day 2
Check out this compilation of our ACR17 Day 2 videocasts merged into a one hour podcast !
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ACR 2017 Playbook
The annual ACR/ARHP meeting, which begins today, Sunday November 5th, is for many the premier meeting in rheumatology. The good news is that RheumNow and its expanded faculty will cover the meeting today and each day until Thursday. I haven’t missed an ACR meeting since 1984. In this span of 30 years I have acquired insights on how to navigate such a big meeting. When I say big, I mean over 15,000 attendees from over 100 countries swarming throughout a convention center that has the elements of the Texas state fair, Costco gone wild and a sold-out Margaritaville concert. Here's my ACR Playbook.
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The Greatest Rheumatologist - Part II
Wow! I hope you read part I of yesterday's “Greatest Rheumatologist” article. So many big names and yet, other names and stories that were equally inspirational.
If you read the comments of the part I article you can clearly see several themes emerge.
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The Greatest Rheumatologist - Part I
Who is the greatest rheumatologist? What makes for a great rheum? Is it clinical acumen, scientific achievement, educational prowess or years of unrivaled service or mentoring? Rheumatologists are quite opinionated on this subject and very nostalgic about their mentors and leaders. When I’ve posed this question in small groups, it’s plain to see how moved they become when discussing mentors or peers who influenced them. Thus, I posed this question to many of our leaders and mentors: who do you think of as the greatest rheumatologist?
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ICYMI: The Greatest Rheumatologist - Part I
Who is the greatest rheumatologist? What makes for a great rheum? Is it clinical acumen, scientific achievement, educational prowess or years of unrivaled service or mentoring? Rheumatologists are quite opinionated on this subject and very nostalgic about their mentors and leaders. When I’ve posed this question in small groups, it’s plain to see how moved they become when discussing mentors or peers who influenced them. Thus, I posed this question to many of our leaders and mentors: who do you think of as the greatest rheumatologist?
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The Big Need - NPs and PAs
Despite being one of the most satisfying of medical subspecialties, the number of U.S. rheumatologists is about to sharply decline. These data were presented at the 2016 ACR meeting, where it was shown that the estimated total number of U.S.
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2016 EULAR Guidelines on RA Management
The management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has evolved significantly with time. Nevertheless, there are still some uncertainties - such as when, what and which biologic or novel therapy should be used.
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What Can 30 Years of Rheumatic Disease Research Tell Us About the Future?
As a practicing rheumatologist for more than 30 years, I can recall a time – just a couple of decades ago – when waiting rooms were full of patients in wheelchairs, debilitated and in pain from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other related conditions.
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Patient Recordings of Visits May be Legal
The current issue of JAMA reviews the rising practice of patient recording of medical visits and their legality.
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Dr. H. Ralph Schumacher (1933-2017)
Dr. H. Ralph Schumacher passed away from ALS in July 30, 2017. The current issues of The Rheumatologist and the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology have beautiful tributes written by Dr. Simon Helfgott and past ACR president Dr.
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