Along with our patients, we've spent the last several months adapting to telemedicine. Following is an update on legislative changes and uncertainties, a look at the care gap that may still exist, and examining the trajectory of telemedicine after the initial rapid growth spurred by COVID-19.

Several recent publications have focused on the risk and outcomes of rheumatic disease (RDD) and autoimmune patients who become infected with SARs-CoV-2.

Following are the latest CDC numbers for COVID-19 in the U.S., including total cases and deaths; the states with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths; and COVID-19 healthcare case numbers.

Cachexia is an underappreciated complication of systemic lupus erythematosus, researchers reported. A total of 56.3% of patients developed the involuntary weight loss accompanied by loss of homeostatic control of protein and energy balance within 5 years of enrollment into a prospective cohort study, according to George Stojan, MD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues.

Risk factors for perioperative infections include age, comorbidity, rheumatoid arthritis and steroids to name a few; whether concurrent use of TNF inhibitor (TNFI) therapy adds to this risk has been debated. In a study of elderly patients receiving infliximab infusions, infliximab use prior to surgery did not change the risk of post-operative infections.

An observational study of patients with systemic autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases (AIRD) who also had COVID-19 disease shows that AIRD increased the risk of hospitalization, but that the use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) were not associated with hospitalization.