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Rheums Speak: Changing Rheumatology Practices & Choices

RheumNow surveyed clinicians worldwide on how their rheumatology practice, treatment decisions, and career outlooks have changed over the past 20 years. 242 respondents (68% from the USA) shared their perspectives on the changing landscape of rheumatoid arthritis care, practice patterns, and

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IBS in America

Despite advances, IBS remains a burden for many millions. A new AGA-sponsored survey conducted by The Harris Poll, a Stagwell (STGW) agency, reveals that IBS symptoms disrupt patients’ productivity and personal activities 19 days each month, impacting both personal and professional

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Inefficiencies of ANA Testing

The Journal of Rheumatology has published an analysis of antinuclear antibody (ANA) multiplex testing showing its nonspecific utility and poor rate of return in identifying ANA-associated autoimmune rheumatic disease (ARDs).

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AMN Healthcare report on MD salaries -- high demand for specialist MDs w/ RHEUM the 7th Most In-Demand. 2024/205 Rheum were low of $214K, a high of $450K, median of $341,000. Avg salary for NPs is $180K up from $164,000 last year, a 9.6% increase. https://t.co/NcmwrMxpKr https://t.co/a86NvQhZry
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Rheums Speak - RA Treatment Survey

RheumNow's August 2025 “Live Vote” surveys examine Rheumatologist impressions, knowledge and practices over the last 20 years when treating rheumatoid arthritis.

The first survey on RA Treatment (7/28/2025) sheds light on evolving prescribing habits, use of biologics, and key frustrations in RA

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A New RA Approval (8.1.2025)

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal reports and a new treatment for RA from the FDA.

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Rheumatology Salaries Remain Low

The annual Medscape Physician Compensation report was published and shows only modest salary gains for most specialists.

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Top 20 Best Rheumatology Hospitals - 2025

U.S. News & World Report has published its Best Hospitals for 2025, listing the best among many specialties, including rheumatology.  Each year, U.S. News ranks hospitals in 15 specialties and for the 8th year in a row, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore has been named the top hospital

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Factors Affecting Biologic Use in Rheumatoid Arthritis

A San Francisco Rheumatoid Arthritis Panel cohort survey between 1999–2011, showed numerous sociodemographic, disease, and health characteristics that influenced the initiation of treatment with biologic agents for rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

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CKD & Osteoporosis Rx Revisited (7.25.2025)

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal and FDA updates from this past week on RheumNow.com.

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Osteoporosis Drug May Lower Osteoarthritis Risk

A target trial emulation study using administrative claims suggests that romosozumab was associated with a lower risk of osteoarthritis than teriparatide among individuals with osteoporosis, particularly for knee osteoarthritis.

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Molecular profiling of RA synovium predicts biologic responses

Machine learning analysis of pre-treatment synovial tissue biopsy from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients starting either etanercept (ETN), tocilizumab (TCZ) and rituximab (RTX)

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1 in 5 Patients are Unaware of their Arthritis Diagnosis

Current CDC numbers suggest that arthritis (any type) affects an estimated 67.1 million (27.9% ) adults in the USA.  Interestingly, 1 in 5 do not know their arthritis subtype (21.6%, 14.4 million).

This most recent analysis of the prevalence and distribution of arthritis subtypes

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Osteoporosis treatment benefits people older than 80

EurekAlert!

People who are older than 80 should be considered for osteoporosis treatment after a fracture to avoid further risk, according to a study being presented Saturday at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

“The burden of osteoporosis is rising as the

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CMS to Test Prior Authorization Model in Traditional Medicare The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new experimental model late last week to streamline some prior authorizations under the traditional Medicare program, but some politicians and experts https://t.co/o8iV9Bb6Ir
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Hmmm Really? (7.11.2025)

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from this past week - some obvious, other new thoughts and some - hmmm, reallly?

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CMS to Test Prior Authorization Model in Traditional Medicare

Medpage Today

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new experimental model late last week to streamline some prior authorizations under the traditional Medicare program, but some politicians and experts are concerned that it could result in more delays in care.

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Early DMARD Initiation Benefits in Psoriatic Arthritis

Mease et al has published the results of a cohort study showing early initiation of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) resulted in better outcomes compared to late initiation.

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ICYMI: Consensus Against Interventional Injections for Chronic Spinal Pain

BMJ has published a clinical practice guideline resulting from the work of an international, multidisciplinary panel addressing chronic spine pain (≥3 months duration) not associated with cancer or inflammatory arthropathy. This is a chronic (not acute) spine pain guideline.

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ICYMI: ACP: Best Practice Advice on Cannabis or Cannabinoids Use for Chronic Noncancer Pain

The American College of Physicians published a best practice advisory on cannabis or cannabinoids in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

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ICYMI: Channeling Bias and Cancer Risk with Biologic or Targeted Synthetic DMARDs

A retrospective US administrative claims cohort study of RA patients on tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFis), non-TNFi biologics, or Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKis) found a statistically significantly higher risk of incident cancer in patients receiving rituximab, abatacept, or JAKis (

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ICYMI: Is Rheumatoid Arthritis Becoming Milder?

A 24 year, prospective study analyzing very early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in three consecutive eras suggests that RA has evolved since 2005, demonstrating less seropositivity, inflammation, and erosions but is characterized by more comorbidity, smoking and corticosteroid use.

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PCR: Prevalence, Cost, & Risk (6.27.2025)

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from last week on RheumNow.com

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HLA-B27 Testing in Practice

A single center study shows HLA-B27 testing is often performed by both by rheumatologists and nonrheumatologists for a wide array of reasons and often along with other serologic tests. Optimal use of HLA-B27 testing has yet to be defined.

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Increasing costs of biologics. X-sectional study of 76 781 psoriasis pts on biologics (TNFi, IL12/23, IL-17i, IL-23i) saw annual treatment cost increase from $21 236 in 2007 to $47 125 in 2021. AVG cost could have been 44% lower if lowest-cost Rx in same class was used https://t.co/IOaK75zsgg
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