How to Best Use RheumNow Save

Before I started this platform, I used to receive emails of info, from people I didn't know or trust, on matters and news that was not important to me or to any rheumatologists for that matter.

Before I started RheumNow, I was laying awake, thinking about what I'd like to see, what's important to other rheumatologists, what would help me in my daily grind.  Thus, RheumNow was designed to consistently provide you and me with useful news, information and science that would make me a better rheumatologist.  Moreover, it had to be more than a glut of info delivery; it also had to be about the type of content, how it was delivered, looked and consumed.

So when did you join up with RheumNow? Have you been here since the beginning, or did you recently discover us? What do you like the most, or the least? What keeps you up at night? We would really like to know and grow the site to meet your needs.

In the 4 years RheumNow.com has been publishing, we've grown with your encouragement, comments and critiques, such that our numbers are a bit staggering and include greater than 6000 daily followers (email and Twitter) and over 10,000 followers through our social media channels (Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook). 

Last year we sent out over 1 million emails and had greater than 500,000 website views. Our week in review video has been viewed by over 40,000 people on the website and on YouTube.

This “How to Use RheumNow” blog is intended to help those of you who would like to get better use and quick hints on consuming RheumNow content.  This is also a good opportunity to get some feedback from you on what we could do better or how we could serve your interests and online education. 

We publish and post for you. Every week we publish roughly 25 news items, which come at you in various forms – emails, weekly reports, videos or podcasts; any of which may be worth consuming or contain info vital to what you do. Thus, how you receive and learn is important to us, so much so you can be customized, pick and choose that which is useful to you.

So here is the cheat sheet on how to best, learn, listen, view and read RheumNow pearls, insights and news:

1. Scan the Daily Email – it only takes 16 seconds to visually scan our email and see what’s new in your world of rheumatology. Start with the feature (Left Column) and down then right column to see the info bites from our social media postings. In 16 seconds you can decide to delete it; read it; or save it (for further reading).
2. Cut Back and Relax – if you think a daily email is too much, then you can sign up to receive either a weekly summary of news or a weekly specific topic report (e.g., RA, Biologics, TNF inhibitors, AS/SpA, Lupus, Pain, Drug Safety, etc.).
3. Just Sum It Up for Me! - many rheums just listen to the weekly overview, provided every Friday as the RheumNow (Weekly) podcast. Actually this can be viewed as a video (Friday email, website or YouTube) or listen to as a podcast (see below).
4. Register to Customize - For any of the above changes you must register on the website (it’s easy, 7 fields, choose a password and we will NEVER sell any registration info to anyone!). You can do this by going to the RheumNow.com homepage and look for the “Login/Register” button above the Search field. Once registered you can change your profile, how you receive our emails or what topics you want to see.  Only registered folk can comment on articles, save articles or participate in helping us design the website or plan for educational content for our website or RheumNow CME meetings.
5. Stepwise learning – all of our news articles, feature articles and social media postings have the same formula for you to discern and learn. A) An informative title; B) Followed by a Summary Short Blurb; and C) a URL link to the original source (so you can retrieve the article or further read on the subject).
6. Checkout our Blogs - if you’re interested in entertainment and perspectives I suggest you read our blogs. We only post those (usually written by a rheumatologist) that well written, informative and sometimes even humorous. Some of my favorite blogs include Knee Replacement and the Physical Terrorist; the Obfuscation of Fibromyalgia; Where My Patients Sit; Rheumatology Dead Word Cemetery 2019, The Story Teller, “The Big Sick” Movie Review, Eat the Frog, Money Ball Be the CEO of Your Health, Diabolical Negativism and Building a Better Rheumatologist 
7. Learn While You Listen – we had no idea podcasts would be so popular. In the last year we’ve had over 100,000 listens to our podcasts. These come out weekly (RheumNow Podcast), but now we’re doing daily podcast called “QD Clinic: (daily lessons from the clinic). These are popular because you can easily listen to these in your car, while running, folding clothes flying on the plane, etc.  Setting this up is easy. You can do this in one of 3 ways:
• Listen On your Phone (running, walking, doing homework, flying, etc.):
• If you have iPhone: it comes with a purple icon that says “Podcasts”. Click it and search for “RheumNow” and you can select “RheumNow” and “subscribe”.
• If you have an Android phone: You need to go to “Google Play Store” and download a podcast player – I would recommend Stitcher, Spotify, Tunein Radio or Sound Cloud. Once you have it downloaded you need to sign in; THEN you can search for “RheumNow” and then subscribe. Once you subscribe the podcasts will automatically be downloaded for listening whenever you wish to.
• In your car: if you have a newer car that has a touch screen menu – you should have either Android Auto or Apple CarPlay (either can pair with your android or iPhone easily). Once your cars audio system is paired with your cell phone, you can click on your Podcast icon (should be on your cars screen) and then find and listen to the next RheumNow podcast as you drive your car home or to the Grand Canyon.
8. QD Clinic – We just started this project to a) deliver pearls from the clinic and b) give you “a slice of life in the rheumatology clinic”. These are short 3 to 5 minute lessons, delivered as both videos and podcasts that can be found on the daily email, our website and also on twitter and LinkedIn.  For instance, I just did one on “Lupus and Hemoptysis” wherein I discuss the approach, thinking and differential diagnosis.
9. Daily Downloads – These are also available on the website and in the daily email – but can only be accessed by those who are registered on the RheumNow website. Here you can find useful, free, downloadable files, including useful clinic forms (patient assessment questionnaires for new patients or follow-up visits), handouts on fibromyalgia, sleep hygiene, and a guide to biologic therapies, which is been updated recently. There are also numerous teaching slides from my own slide collection – great for teaching, free to download, use or modify as you wish.
10. Meeting Coverage - At certain times each year, we will feature expanded coverage of EULAR, ACR, RWCS, and the upcoming RheumNow.Live. These will be featured on the daily email and also on the website and will link you to special content to keep you up-to-date with great meetings and congresses.  If you want to find out more about great upcoming meetings you can click on these links for RWCS and RheumNow.Live or you can follow along while we are at the meetings. 

What keeps you up late at night (that we can solve)?

What do you like the most?

How come you listen or don't listen to podcasts?

What do you like least? 

What needs improvement?

MANY THANKS!!