Exclusive: ACR Convergence 2024| Focus Rheums

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

Mentoring Makes the World Go ‘Round

Marian T. Hannan, DSc, MPH, and Catherine L. Backman, PhD, OT(C)  |  

After a decade each of serving on many committees and presidential working groups, our work in the ARHP is not over. In fact, we have discovered that our educational and professional motivation to improve research and educate our students has nearly one hundred-percent overlap with the ongoing goals of the ARHP to support the graduate students and young investigators and to sponsor new members. The ARHP offers several opportunities for you to mentor a student, colleague, or non-member through the ARHP Graduate Student Award Program, the Member-Get-a-Member Campaign, and the REF grants programs for health professionals.

Everybody Is Doing It: Are You an Advocate?

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This month, the ACR board of directors is on Capitol Hill. As leaders of the organization, they have heard the cry of their membership and are dedicating time to address the concerns of the rheumatology community with Congress.

The Future of Medicine Is in Washington—You Should Be, Too

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On March 10, the ACR hosted its 2009 “Advocates for Arthritis” fly-in. During this event, over 100 rheumatologists, rheumatology health professionals, and patient advocates walked the halls of Congress to lobby legislators on important issues affecting the rheumatology community.

Streamlined Funding Portfolio Increases Efficacy

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The ACR Research and Education Foundation recently completed a comprehensive review of its core awards and grants portfolio to assure that it was effective in meeting the needs of junior or early career physician-scientists and health professionals.

PQRI Now Includes RA Measures Group

Salahuddin Kazi, MD, Melesia Tillman, CPC, CCP, and Amy S. Miller  |  

In 2008, the only Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) measure that applied to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapy. For 2009, five new RA measures were included, for a total of six measures in the new RA Measures Group. The five new measures were developed in 2008 by the National Committee for Quality Assurance in collaboration with the ACR and the American Medical Association’s Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement and were subsequently adopted by Medicare.