Managing health conditions is rapidly evolving as patients increasingly turn to online resources for answers—over 65% search for health-related questions online. Our study analyzed Google search trends for rheumatic disease topics, offering a fascinating glimpse into how online search behavior can reveal patient needs and experiences. This approach, known as "infodemiology," tracks real-time Google Trends data to understand symptom- and treatment-related searches for rheumatic conditions.

ACR24 Begins today. Many of the great presentations for this meeting come from industry sponsored clinical trials and reports.  Often these become the pivotal studies for regulatory approval and the annual congresses are their first look.

A recent study by Sparks et al reveals evolving trends in DMARD usage for rheumatoid arthritis over two decades in the United States. This retrospective analysis evaluated 407,728 DMARD initiation episodes among 229,365 unique patients from 2001 to 2021.

ACR 2024 starts tomorrow. Here are a few previews of abstracts to be presented, along with my recommendations of sessions you don’t want to miss.