Focus Rheums| ACR Convergence 2024 Previews

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

Rheumatologist Demonstrates Passion in Both His Profession & His Hobby, Stamp Collecting

Eric Butterman  |  

It was sixth grade, and Pierre Moeser—now a rheumatologist in St. Peters, Mo., who had already lived in his share of countries, saw a kid’s stamp collection displaying seemingly endless nations. Then and there, he got hooked on philately, “which is not just studying stamps, but also postal history and related items,” says Dr. Moeser….

The ACR’s Grassroots Advocacy Efforts Rely on Rheumatology Patients

Joan M. Von Feldt, MD, MSEd, FACR, FACP  |  

Over the past several years, the ACR has ramped up its efforts in advocacy. Under the leadership of the Government Affairs Committee, many ACR staff, members and their patients, considerable progress has been made moving priority issues forward in 2015. A few highlights from 2015 include: The Patients’ Access to Treatment Act (PATA) was introduced…

What Listening to Lungs Might Teach About Rheumatic Disease

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One of your first clinical assignments as a medical student was likely to have been the lung exam. Its key descriptors may still resonate in your mind: inspection, palpation, percussion and auscul­tation. Proudly parading down the hospital corridors, your newly purchased stethoscope snugly tucked inside your lab coat pocket, you carefully place its cold metal…

APS: What Rheumatologists Should Know about Hughes Syndrome

Graham R.V. Hughes, MD, FRCP  |  

The problem that dogs the work of all of those treating patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is the apparent lack of knowledge of the syndrome, both by the general public, as well as by swaths of the medical fraternity. Perhaps it was ever thus—a syndrome less than 40 years old could be described as new,…

Case Study in Dermatology: Tender Papules on Elbows, Hands in RA

Drew Kurtzman, MD, & Timothy McCalmont, MD, with Ruth Ann Vleugels, MD, MPH, & Joseph F. Merola, MD, MMSc  |  

The Case A 41-year-old woman was referred to the dermatology clinic for a three-month history of tender lesions on her elbows and around the joints of her hands. Her medical history was notable for seropositive, non-erosive rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which was being treated with 5 mg pred­nisone daily, 10 mg methotrexate weekly by mouth, 200…

2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting: Next Generation Sequencing and Disease Mechanisms

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SAN FRANCISCO—By harnessing the power of next generation sequencing strategies and combining them with clever statistical strategies and tools, investigators are striving to define causal pathways of and mechanisms underlying complex diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, according to Soumya Raychaudhuri, MD, PhD, associate professor, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, during a session…

Opinion: Why Rheumatologists Should Adhere to Standard of Care

Bruce Rothschild, MD  |  

It is valuable to understand the semantics of consultant comments. A journal article I once read indicated that when a consultant reports having seen a series of individuals with a given problem, it means they have seen two cases. When they report they have experience with a problem, they mean they have seen a (one)…