Patients should act as if they are the CEO of a new business. Their business is the disease they must manage. The analogies of managing a business and a disease are numerous and instructive for patients and physicians alike.
Our inner thoughts are usually negative, critical or pessimistic. Negative thinking is ubiquitous, and may be responsible for indecision or ill-choices. How to identify it and deal with it in patient care is an unsavory challenge often left undone.
Video highlights from last week's reports, news and tweets on RheumNow.com
I’m alot better at RA in the last 10 years than I was when I started to practice 30 years ago. RA has not changed, but tools, knowledge and treatments have progressed admirably. Decades have taught me that many aspects of RA were wrongly taught, misunderstood or not apparent when I first started in rheumatology in 1984. Here are 10 things I've learned.
Do your patients challenge you? Do you live up to their expectations? How many steps do you have to climb to be better?
Patients believe that a lab result is a numeric true representation their biology and a pivotal arbiter of wellness, yet physicians often dismiss such results as hanging chads in a meaningless election. Why do patients believe their labs moreso than their doctor?
What to do when a patient has a latex allergy and you prescribe an injectable biologic (many having latex allergy as a contraintication)?
A patient recently asked me, “What do you think it’s like to have RA” and “How would you describe it to someone you just met?” Could I walk a mile in her shoes? Here's my version and theirs.
Was 2015 a good year for psoriasis, IL-17, biosimilars, narcotics, the ACR and gout? Our year end review discusses the most impactful news and research from the last 12 months.
I find it interesting that when the Q&A part of the lecture begins, everyone acts as if they just got on the elevator. Who is willing to go out on a limb and ask the first question? Is Q&A the best or worst part of lectures that you attend? What can you do change the impact of your next Q&A experience?
Travel can be challenging for arthritis patients. Here are some useful tips to travel smoothly and pain free.
Notalgia, Lyme disease in Texas and still wearing your hospital ID bracelet? You may have been misdiagnosed and instead have fibromyalgia!