Best of 2020: Wisdom for New Rheumatology Fellows

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Congratulations on choosing the greatest profession, one equally dedicated to both science and patient care. You are now part of a guild that will support you and anticipate your success. Rheumatology needs you to be a big thinking, futuristic problem-solving practitioner who will lead and learn, research and teach. Here are my words of wisdom for aspiring MSK phenoms.

Wisdom for New Rheumatology Fellows

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Congratulations on choosing the greatest profession, one equally dedicated to both science and patient care. You are now part of a guild that will support you and anticipate your success. Rheumatology needs you to be a big thinking, futuristic problem-solving practitioner who will lead and learn, research and teach. Here are my words of wisdom for aspiring MSK phenoms.

ICYMI: Telemedicine Bloopers and Successes

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At my COVID home command center, I feel pretty prepared for everything. From here, I can run my practice, manage and home-school 3 children and keep the family afloat.  I have 2 computers: one for telemedicine/business meetings and one for e-learning lessons/school updates that teachers and school administrators email me throughout the day for my children.  As a no-nonsense, organized mom and doctor, I felt ready to handle any issues that would arise. 

Telemedicine Bloopers and Successes

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A Review of the Review Course + How to Make the Information Stick

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I have been attending the ACR Review Course for more than a decade, and it seems every year it gets better and better. Contrary to what most people think, this is not a board review course; it is more of a review of the latest research delivered by experts condensing rheumatology in eight hours.

Remembering the Names of Drugs

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Knowing the names of the agents in today’s armamentarium should be simple. But, the nomenclature is notoriously confusing. The names of monoclonal antibodies can stretch to five syllables which defy easy pronunciation beyond the “mab” at the end. Who comes up with these names anyway?

Best of 2018: 5 Mistakes When Diagnosing Adult-Onset Still’s Disease

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Adult-onset Still's presents an interesting and diagnostic challenge when encountered. Here are 5 tips to improve your diagnostic acumen for this febrile disorder.

Prescription Drugs and the Effect on Access to Biosimilars in the US

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The word “access” is thrown around a lot these days, particularly regarding health care and specifically, prescription medications. Access to medications essentially revolves around two things: availability and affordability. Immediately, pharmaceutical manufacturers come to mind, as they are responsible for production and setting the list price. However, ultimate availability and affordability of medications is shared with another entity. The final arbiter of access is the Pharmacy Benefit Manager. Their power resides in the fact that they control the formulary and determine the “preferred drugs” list. How does this relate to the uptake of biosimilars?

ACR 2017 Highlights: RA, SpA, PsA, OA, Lupus and More

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The quality of the meeting was on par with the host city, with extensive data presented on a range of topics, from social media to drug safety. The organization committee did a great job and I got the feeling that most people felt the congress was user friendly given the magnitude of the event. During this year’s meeting, I had the privilege of working with the RheumNow team, which gave me the opportunity to hone my social media skills and get my Twitter game on. After reviewing plenty of posters and going to numerous presentations, here are my top take home messages as classified by disease state.

Forced, Rational or Glitch-Ridden Prescribing Practices

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A recent analysis of 3 groups of treatment-naïve, early rheumatoid arthritis (ERA) patients looked at the factors that influenced the choice of therapy.

My Approach to Difficult RA

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Patients are labeled as having “difficult RA" when: 1) we are frustrated, 2) it's too late, 3) we've run out of options or 4) the relationship is failing. We see them, but don’t quite know what to do with them.

The IL-6 Wars

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In the years to come, the availability of numerous new IL-6 inhibitors it will either complicate treatment decisions, alter existing treatment paradigms, or result in an all-out war against TNF inhibitor dominance. Data, differences and time will tell.