As a member of the ACR Government Affairs Committee, Mohammad Kamran, MD, has embraced virtual advocacy as a way to make a difference for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

As a member of the ACR Government Affairs Committee, Mohammad Kamran, MD, has embraced virtual advocacy as a way to make a difference for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
A posthoc analysis confirms patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA) taking secukinumab experience improvement in all signs and symptoms of PsA as measured by the GRAPPA-OMERACT disease activity core domains.
Lisa Rapaport |
(Reuters Health)—People with thumb-base osteoarthritis (OA) who receive a combination of conservative treatments, including education in self-management, ergonomics and hand exercises, may experience clinically meaningful improvements in hand function, a study suggests. Researchers randomized 204 people with thumb-base OA (1:1) to receive education on self-management and ergonomics alone (comparator) or in combination with a base-of-thumb…
Musculoskeletal disorders pose a large burden globally, but that burden is often underappreciated. Safiri et al. set out to provide a global overview of this burden, reporting the levels and trends of prevalence, deaths and disability-adjusted life years due to musculoskeletal disorders according to age, sex and sociodemographic factors.
Lisa Rapaport |
(Reuters Health)—Total knee replacement surgery can be a cost-effective procedure for patients with severe obesity and osteoarthritis (OA), even when they also have comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests. Researchers did a cost-benefit analysis for two patient populations (over 65 years, and age 50 to 65) who had…
Marilynn Larkin |
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—U.K. experts propose evidence-based management strategies for rheumatology patients on immunosuppressive therapy, including delaying/postponing rituximab, as appropriate. “The aim of this viewpoint article is to outline the existing data on the effect of anti-rheumatic therapy on vaccine responses in patients with inflammatory arthritis and to formulate a possible pragmatic strategy for the…
Subcutaneous tocilizumab is the first biologic agent approved by the FDA treat patients with systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease.
Lisa Rapaport |
(Reuters Health)—Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation is safe and effective as an intervention for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a small proof-of-concept study suggests. The study enrolled 35 patients with active RA and an inadequate response to therapy with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). All DMARDS were discontinued four weeks prior to the trial. For the study, all participants…
With the approval of its Board of Directors, the ACR sent a letter to President Biden and newly minted Secretary of Health & Human Services Xavier Becerra, strongly supporting Janet Woodcock, MD, to be nominated as the FDA’s permanent commissioner. The ACR also congratulated Secretary Becerra upon his confirmation.
In a recent study, researchers designed an intervention centered on communication and led by nurses to address discontinuation rates among patients who had switched to a biosimilar. The nurses’ insight and experience reduced the nocebo effect during the intervention, which had an 84% retention rate for patients taking a biosimilar after one year.