The Health Assessment Questionnaire is a utilitarian outcome measure, often used in clinical trials and daily practice. Unless you’re still prescribing penacillamine, never attended an ACR meeting, and never read an RA clinical trial, you’re quite familiar with the HAQ and its use in practice. So, surely you’ve heard of the “Brooklyn HAQ”?
Rheumatologists distinguish themselves from their medical colleagues in several ways: exceptional joint exam and joint injection skills, interpretation of complex immunologic findings and cost-efficient ways of managing common musculoskeletal disorders. But what’s the one trait, skill or question that defines the acumen of the rheumatologist? Please don’t say morning stiffness.
I had a 20-minute visit scheduled with Mrs. Goldstein yesterday. She is a thin, foreign-born, older woman with rheumatoid arthritis, recently complicated by lymphoma. As I sat, I asked “where is your husband this morning”, as he usually attends her medical visits. I had already turned to the computer and started to bring up her file, meds, etc. There was a long pause before she finally answered.
A new subspecialty may emerge. New drugs will be approved (but it will be difficult for patients to get coverage for them). And an American team will win the World Series. All these and more: here are predictions for 2017 and beyond from rheumatologists across the country and around the world.
The five do's and don'ts when it comes to vaccinating your patients.
Why don't rheumatologists send their smoker patients to smoking cessation programs or use aids for cessation? Do we think it is not our problem?
How many clues are needed for a rheumatologist to know something is wrong with the therapeutic soup he/she is trying to concoct? One patient's tale leads to rethinking the RA treatment paradigm.
The introduction of the 2015 rheumatoid arthritis treatment guidelines has prompted discussion and critique from many. Here's my perspective on where monotherapy and methotrexate combination therapy fits in our armamentarium.
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.
Video highlights from last week's reports, news and tweets on RheumNow.com
My colleagues indulged me in a small experiment. I set before them $100 in cash and offered each of them a choice: take the $100, or flip a coin for a 50% chance to win a certain amount of money that they could specify. They would tell me the minimum amount of money I needed to offer in order to prefer the coin flip over taking the $100. What does this have to do with treat-to-target?
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