Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is plagued by obesity, depression and increased comorbidities; now it appears that polypharmacy adds to the burden of managing PsA.
A study of 11,984 PsA patients in the German BARMER health insurance database from 2021 compared medicines and comorbidities
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A prospective, pragmatic, open-label, randomized trial conducted by the UK National Health Service, studied interventions in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and found no advantage to either CTS corticosteroid injection (CSI) or night splinting (NS) as the initial treatment of CTS
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Dr. Jack Cush Reviews the News and Journal articles from the past week on RheumNow. This weeks highlights includes insights on scleroderma, myositis, vasculitis and answers the question - does aggressive biologic treatment of psoriasis prevent future psoriatic arthritis?
A Medicare study shows that young adults with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) exhibit very high 30-day rehospitalization rates (36%) that are significantly higher than older SLE patients and age matched non-SLE patients.
This study was drawn from a 20% national Medicare sample from
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The Annals of Rheumatic Disease has published updated multinational, treat-to-target (T2T) recommendations for the treatment of giant cell arteritis (GCA) and polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR).
The task force of 29 members from 10 countries developed five overarching principles
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Wang et al., in a JAMA Network Research Letter, recently reviewed Medicaid expenditures on adalimumab (ADA), sold under the brand name HUMIRA®. They noted that the introduction of the citrate-free formulation cost an extra $4.4B to Medicaid between 2014 and 2021.
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Medicare beneficiaries 65 and older with lupus faced dramatically higher mortality when they received no follow-up care during the month after a hospital stay, researchers found.
Death rates within 30 days of discharge were 65% higher in the absence of 30-day follow-up compared with
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The need for total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients appears to depend on the use of disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), according to Seminars in Arthroplasty.
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GRAPPA has provided new, evidence based updates to the management of enthesitis in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA), affecting at least 30% of PsA patients and is associated with more severe disease, x-ray damage, and poorer outcomes.
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ChatGPT is a new, artificial intelligence chatbot that has dramatically changed the digital worlds of education, research, graphic design, statistics and more. While this AI driven platform has the untold potential in generating written content, there is considerable concern in assuring that
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Exercise is known to improve function, pain and quality of life (QOL) in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA), but optimal amount of exercise is unknown. The Annals of Internal medicine has reported the results of high-dose versus low-dose exercise therapy demonstrating no benefits from
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The 2023 Medscape Survey on Physician burnout ranks rheumatology at #10; which is down from #2 when the survey was last done in 2021.
The survey included over 9100 physcians from 29 specialties. Surprisingly, 53% of MDs claimed to be burnt-out; this was only 42% in 2018.
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The Health and Human Services Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters proposed rule for 2024 does not revise policies related to copay assistance and patient deductibles.
The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) today submitted comments to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
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Two artificial intelligence (AI) programs -- including ChatGPT -- have passed the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), according to two recent papers.
The papers highlighted different approaches to using large language models to take the USMLE, which is comprised of three exams
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A cross-sectional global study shows a substantial impact of obesity and BMI on the health and economic impact of patients with musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders.
In this cross-sectional study of 192 countries and territories, 7.3 million years lived with disability and $180.7 billion
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Dr. Jack Cush reviews the highlights from the past week on RheumNow.com.
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The American College of Physicians (ACP) has updated its 2017 recommendations on pharmacologic treatment of primary osteoporosis or low bone mass to prevent fractures in adults. The full document and guideline can be found in the Annals of Internal Medicine. This guideline is the
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Reuters reports that in 2023, drug makers intend to increase the price of over 350 drugs.
Despite public outcry and goverment attempts to limit drug price increases (Biden's Inflation Reduction Act;IRA), these increases are expected to begin in January 2023. The IRA is suppose to
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One-third of patients admitted with giant cell arteritis (GCA) were rehospitalized within 6 months, largely because of complications potentially related to corticosteroid therapy, researchers found in a retrospective cohort study.
Among the cohort of 1,206 patients hospitalized with
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The American College of Physicians (ACP) has issued an update of its guideline with clinical recommendations for treatments of primary osteoporosis and low bone mass in adults. In the new guideline, ACP recommends bisphosphonates as initial pharmacologic treatment to reduce the risk of
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The American College of Rheumatology is pleased to announce another successful recruitment season and welcomes this impressive pool of applicants to the field of rheumatology. 75 percent of the eligible candidates interested in adult rheumatology and 96 percent of eligible applicants
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The drug talarozole – which increases retinoic acid – could be a promising new treatment for hand osteoarthritis.
Tonia Vincent, Professor of Musculoskeletal Biology & Honorary Rheumatologist at Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal
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Osteoarthritis is a common chronic condition that usually causes joint pain and can be severe enough to require knee and hip replacements. In the United States, the number of total knee replacement (TKR) and total hip replacement (THR) surgeries is estimated to reach 572 000 per year by 2030
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Nature Reviews Rheumatology features a review of three notable papers that address the impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on people with inflammatory rheumatic disease.
Studies on the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines, have shown rapid and strong development of immunity in
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