COVID-19

As we inch closer to a possible vaccine for COVID-19, we are finally filling in the details on how the pandemic is affecting every aspect of our patient’s lives.

The shift from face-to-face consultations to telemedicine has been immense for clinicians and patients. Given the numerous challenges and nuances in practising telemedicine, it is apt that ACR 2020 has been packed with abstracts and presentations on this topic.

Friday was the first full day of scientific sessions at the 2020 Virtual ACR/ARP annual meeting. Here are my highlights from day one:

From flu shots and face masks to vaccines and searching for the immunological endotype, here are six things rheumatologists need to know about COVID-19.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, rheumatologists scrambled to figure out how the SARS-CoV-2 virus will affect their patients with immune mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID). Meeting the needs of patients, managing a practice, and trying to balance a home life have many doctors stressed.

Infection in the setting of autoimmune rheumatic disease (ARD) has been the subject of increasing research and clinical interest for decades. Despite the huge burden of infection in patients with ARDs, this area of research has really been catapulted to the centre-stage of research agendas and coverage at congresses, including ACR 2020, with the arrival of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.