It feels like a long decade has passed since March 2020. At The Rheumatologist, we closed out 2020 with a special supplement on gout. Physician Editor Phil Seo, MD, MHS, kicked off that supplement with, “COVID-19. Black Lives Matter. A new gout guideline. These are some of the things 2020 ushered in. And we’re unlikely…
The use of objective, validated outcome measures to track progress in symptom control for patients with psoriatic arthritis was discussed in a session at the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting titled Optimizing Outcomes in Psoriatic Arthritis: A Domain-Based Strategy. In the years since this presentation, additional research has helped supply greater insights into this topic and…
We are fortunate to have clinical practice guidelines for the management of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) from multiple organizations to help navigate today’s rapidly evolving therapeutic landscape. We are further fortunate to have multiple specialists to manage these conditions: rheumatologists and dermatologists. However, multiple guidelines, multiple drugs and multiple specialists can create a paradox…
As treatments for psoriatic arthritis (PsA) emerge, a clinical trial comparing the Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor upadacitinib and the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor adalimumab provided some new insights. Published earlier this year in The New England Journal of Medicine, the SELECT-PsA 1, double-blind, phase 3 trial found that a 30 mg dose of upadacitinib…
Approximately 50% of young adult patients with childhood-onset rheumatic diseases become lost to follow-up within the first year of transferring to adult rheumatology care, mirroring the statistics of other subspecialties.1,2 One of the challenges cited most consistently by young adult patients and their families relates to differences between rheumatology care delivery in the pediatric and…
Jeffrey Siegel, MD, Assumes New Position as Director for New Office of Drug Evaluation Sciences at the FDA On Feb. 16, Jeffrey Siegel, MD, became the director of the recently created Office of Drug Evaluation Sciences at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). The move, he says, “puts together many of the different things…
“Maria” is a 54-year-old woman with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis, as well as hypertension and hyperlipidemia. She is a new patient in your clinic following a move across the country to live with her children on a farm in a rural area of the Midwest. At her first visit, three months ago, you and Maria agreed—through…
Over the past 16 months, the world has shone a bright light on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Although the College has been focused on diversity initiatives since 2020, the interprofessional division of the College, the ARP, has recently taken a deeper dive into DEI initiatives in its processes, procedures and volunteering….
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are the focus of a new ACR/ARP subcommittee of the Collaborative Initiatives (COIN) Special Committee. The 13-member group will explore strategies to increase diversity in the rheumatology workforce pipeline and reduce implicit bias in such organizational processes as speaker recruitment and abstract review. “There is a new awareness at the…
The difference between Castleman disease and Castleman-like disease may be subtle, but it comes with significant ramifications. Case Presentation This case involves a pregnant 19-year-old woman who presents over multiple hospitalizations with concerns for systemic lupus erythematosus and macrophage activation syndrome. At 36 weeks’ gestation, the patient’s weight had dropped from 215 lbs. to 170…