Focus Rheums| ACR Convergence 2024 Previews

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

Specialized Health Care May Be Lacking under Obamacare Plans

Andrew M. Seaman  |  

(Reuters Health)—Some health insurance plans sold on the Affordable Care Act‘s federal marketplace may not provide reasonable access to medical specialists, new research suggests. Under the act, also known as Obamacare, the federal marketplace offers subsidized private health insurance to consumers in states that didn’t establish their own health insurance exchanges. About one in seven…

Don’t Bank on U.S. Drug Price Rises, Warns GSK Boss

Ben Hirschler  |  

LONDON (Reuters)—Pharmaceutical companies cannot depend on ever increasing prices in the U.S. and will need to find a new balance between incentives for innovation and access to medicines, according to the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline. High drug prices have come under fierce political fire recently in America, the industry’s biggest and most profitable market, with…

Low-Grade Inflammation in Symptomatic Knee OA

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Although osteoarthritis (OA) was formerly considered a non-inflammatory joint disease, it’s now well-appreciated that inflammatory mediators, such as PGE2 and IL-1β, are produced by osteoarthritic joint tissues and can be used to identify patients with symptomatic knee OA. A peripheral blood leukocyte inflammatory transcriptome identifies a subset of symptomatic knee OA patients at higher risk for radiographic progression and may reflect persistent low-grade joint inflammation…

The Lupus Initiative Receives 5-Year CDC Grant

American College of Rheumatology  |  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded the American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) The Lupus Initiative (TLI) with a five-year grant to support the development of a national, grassroots program targeting primary care providers, persons with undiagnosed Lupus and rheumatology health care providers. The program will have three components: Immediate dissemination of…

BMI Feasible As Pre-Screening Tool for Osteoporosis in Women

Larry Hand  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—A body mass index (BMI) of less than 28 alone may be a tool to prescreen younger postmenopausal women for osteoporosis, according to a new study. “For young postmenopausal white women aged 50–64, current prescreening modalities identifying candidates for DXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) scan … are not performing better than BMI alone,”…

FDA Reviewers Question Safety of AstraZeneca’s Gout Drug

Amrutha Penumudi  |  

(Reuters)—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff reviewers have raised concerns about kidney- and heart-related side effects noted in trials on AstraZeneca Plc’s gout treatment, especially at higher doses. FDA reviewers, in a preliminary review published on Wednesday, expressed concerns over higher death rates related to the side effects in patients who took the drug,…

Knee Replacement Surgery Works, but So Can Nonsurgical Techniques

Gene Emery  |  

(Reuters Health)—Total knee replacement can usually relieve pain and improve function, but a nonsurgical regimen can also be effective in some people without posing the complication risks of surgery, according to a new study. The study found that while 85% of patients who underwent surgery showed clinically-significant improvement after one year, so did 67% assigned…

Even Doctors & Nurses Don’t Always Have Healthy Lifestyles

Lisa Rapaport  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Even doctors and nurses don’t always follow the healthy lifestyle choices they recommend for patients to reduce the risk of medical problems, such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes, a U.S. study suggests. Although rates of these conditions appeared lower among healthcare workers than other people, the diseases were still common. They…