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An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

U.S. Supreme Court Speeds Copycat Biologic Drugs to Market

Andrew Chung  |  

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cut the time it will take for copycat versions of biologic drugs to get to the market in a pivotal ruling about an expensive class of medicines that can yield billions of dollars in sales for drug companies. The justices, in a 9–0 ruling, overturned a lower court…

Documentation Guidelines for Proper Medical Decision Making

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The Medical Decision Making (MDM) of an evaluation and management (E/M) visit is one of the three components of determining the level of a patient’s visit. But the MDM can sometimes be the most difficult component, as this is where the provider’s thought process is quantified in deciding the correct level of E/M service. In the…

Highlights from the Second Annual ACR Division Directors’ Conference

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The second annual ACR Division Directors’ Conference took place in Chicago on March 10–11. The conference opened with a presentation on the use of the ACR’s Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness (RISE) Registry in academic medical centers by Salahuddin “Dino” Kazi, MD, from UT Southwestern Medical Center, and Jinoos Yazdany, MD, MPH, from the University of California…

Rheumatology Research Foundation Funding Enables Potential Treatment Advancements

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Investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital recently discovered a novel subset of peripheral helper T cells (TPH) that drive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) inflammation. Originally published in the February issue of Nature, findings from this study provided bedrock knowledge for developing new RA therapies. Now, with funding from the Rheumatology Research Foundation, investigators are expanding on…

The ACR, ARHP Keep Members, Patients’ Priorities on Congressional Legislative Slate

Sharad Lakhanpal, MBBS, MD, & Afton Hassett, PsyD  |  

We can’t change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust our sails. The origin of this proverb is unclear. Some citations link it to ancient Hindu philosophers, and others suggest the origin may be closer to home (i.e., Jimmy Dean or Dolly Parton). Nonetheless, the sentiment is apt: We are living in an…

Parkinson’s, Autoimmune Disorders May Share Genetic Common Ground

Joan Stephenson  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Parkinson’s disease and some autoimmune diseases may have genetic risk factors in common, raising the possibility that the immune system may influence Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis, new research suggests. The study, which analyzed data from genome-wide association studies, “showed a considerable genetic overlap between [Parkinson’s disease] and autoimmune diseases, in particular, type 1…

Tight RA Control Via Telemedicine Noninferior to Conventional Clinic Visits

Reuters Staff  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health—Telemedicine follow up based on patient-reported outcome (PRO) is noninferior to conventional outpatient care for tight control of disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with low disease activity or remission, new findings show. “Even though patients in the [telemedicine] follow-up groups requested more acute visits, they over-all had a more than…

Innate Immune Response Predicts Development of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in Sjögren’s Syndrome

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The P2X7 receptor inflammasome axis may have a role in the pathogenesis of Sjögren’s syndrome and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. According to new research, patients with Sjögren’s syndrome who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma had an increased expression of the P2X7R-inflammasome axis and the glandular expression of IL-18, suggesting a possible novel biomarker…