Articles By Jack Cush, MD
Best of 2020: ACR 2020 Reproductive Guidelines - Contraception & Counseling
The American College of Rheumatology established a guidelines committee that consisted of both patients, rheumatologists and maternal-fetal health experts. After a a systematic review of the medical literature regarding contraception, assisted reproductive technology, fertility preservation, hormone replacement therapy pregnancy, lactation, and medication use in rheumatic disease patients, they published 12 good practice statements and 131 recommendations for reproductive health care in RMD patients.
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Best of 2020: Wisdom for New Rheumatology Fellows
Congratulations on choosing the greatest profession, one equally dedicated to both science and patient care. You are now part of a guild that will support you and anticipate your success. Rheumatology needs you to be a big thinking, futuristic problem-solving practitioner who will lead and learn, research and teach. Here are my words of wisdom for aspiring MSK phenoms.
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Best of 2020: Rheumatic Disease Drugs and COVID-19
We are in the early stages of trying to limit the morbid and mortal consequences of the corona virus pandemic of 2020. Not surprisingly, the recommendations designed to limit exposure and damage continually highlight the fact that the elderly and immunosuppressed may be amongst the most severely affected should they become infected with this virus. This has led to a great deal of uncertainty by patients and providers about how rheumatic diseases and their treatments need to be specifically addressed.
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Best of 2020: Goodwill Wednesday
Business as usual, Wednesday morning, as I quickly stop at 7-Eleven for my morning coffee and it all begins. A nice stranger holds the door open for me; I reach for a carton of milk for someone unable to; the cashier skips the 2 cents on a $2.02 bill (with a smile). What transpired in a quick five minutes was a series of random, unrelated, unprovoked acts of kindness. Blatant politeness, sincere smiles, compliments between strangers and lots of open doors. This made me think.
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RheumNow Podcast – Up, Down & Turned Around (12.18.20)
Dr Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from this past week on RheumNow.com
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COVID-19 as a Leading Cause of Death in the USA
The exponential rise in deaths from the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the last several months is put into perspective by JAMA Viewpoint article noting that current US death rates of > 3000 per day from COVID-19 is greater than that seen in one day on September 11, 2001 (9/11 attacks, claimed 2988 lives) or by a fictional catastrophe of 15 Airbus 320 jetliners (150 passengers each) crashing daily.
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Benlysta First Agent Approved for Lupus Nephritis
After the successful completion of the BLISS-LN trial and previewing the results at EULAR 2020 and ACR Convergence, GlaxoSmithKline announced yesterday that the FDA has approved belimumab (Benlysta) for use in adults with active lupus nephritis (LN) receiving background/standard therapy.
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Filgotinib Bows Out of the RA Race in the USA
Gilead Sciences Inc announced yesterday that it has decided not to pursue the an rheumatoid arthritis (RA) indicatin for its once daily oral JAK inhibitor, filgotinib (also named Jyseleca).
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Consensus Recommendations on JAK Inhibitor Use
A steering committee and task force was convened to develop recommendations for the use of Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors in the treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID).
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Lung Cancer Survival With Autoimmune Disease
Lung cancer risk is often increased with inflammation and autoimmune disease; a recent analysis suggests that patients with autoimmune disease do not have worse survival, even though they may have received less than the standard-of-care treatments.
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