Bharat Kumar, MD, MME, FACP, FAAAAI, RhMSUS, is a clinical assistant professor of internal medicine in the Division of Immunology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City. Before assuming the role of physician editor, he was a member of the ACR Board of Directors (beginning in 2020). After attending college at the University of Pennsylvania, he went to Saba University School of Medicine and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Kentucky. He arrived in Iowa in 2014 and completed fellowships in both rheumatology and allergy/immunology in 2017, as well as a master’s degree in medical education and certification in musculoskeletal ultrasonography. His clinical interests include the intersection of autoimmunity and immunodeficiency, musculoskeletal ultrasonography, and ocular inflammatory diseases. As the associate program director for the rheumatology fellowship training program, he is also driven by a desire to improve the quality of medical education as well as the value of clinical work for both patients and practitioners. Outside the clinic, Dr. Kumar has a keen interest in medical journalism, quality improvement and humanism, and is the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s Humanism-in-Research Associate Editor.
“Maria” is a 54-year-old woman with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis, as well as hypertension and hyperlipidemia. She is a new patient in your clinic following a move across the country to live with her children on a farm in a rural area of the Midwest. At her first visit, three months ago, you and Maria agreed—through…
If you’re a rheumatologist, you likely remember the moment of truth on your match day—the day of revelation, when the complex computer algorithm set up by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) accommodates the wishes of programs and applicants and then discloses into which program an applicant has been placed. Although it has always been…
What do rheumatology and wizardry have in common? More than you may think. Like basilisks, rheumatic diseases are often elusive and changing in presentation…
When I first met Ms. Miller (name changed), quite frankly, I couldn’t wait to get out of the room. I’m sure she couldn’t either. A woman in her 40s with systemic lupus erythematosus, poorly controlled asthma and fibromyalgia, she seemed to have every conceivable symptom. And, worse than that, due to a long history of…
Congratulations! You’ve decided to become a rheumatologist and, in so doing, join the ranks of some of the most intelligent, empathic and dynamic physicians out there. But between your decision today and where you see yourself in three, five or 10 years, many more decisions must be made. Arguably, the most important is the decision…
“Hi, I’m Dr. Kumar, and I’m an allergist,” is something I sometimes fumble when I introduce myself to confused rheumatology patients, before I quickly correct myself with, “… well, I’m also a rheumatologist.” There’s a moment of slight embarrassment that I crossed my circuits, but otherwise I’m proud to say I’m certified in both. This…
The immune system is an ocean, wide, vast and unfathomably deep, over which we rheumatologists traverse. Beyond the ripples, waves and eddies on the surface, we can only imagine what lies under the surface. With new information from basic laboratory studies and the incorporation of immunomodulators into clinical practice, we have some new insight into…
No matter where you practice, rheumatology clinics are extremely busy. And in that hustle and bustle we find an uncomfortable jostling of priorities between delivering optimal care for as many patients as possible and upholding education for teachers and learners at all levels. Because salary usually comes from seeing more and more patients, teaching is…
If you read The Rheumatologist regularly, you may remember a column I wrote a few months ago about giving and receiving feedback (July 2017). I wrote it when I was finishing fellowship and looking back at six years of my graduate medical education. Now, as an attending physician who spends a considerable amount of time…
During the two or three short years of a rheumatology fellowship, there is so much to learn: the subtle art of the musculoskeletal examination, the intricacies of the immune system and the indications for a dizzyingly increasing array of new medications, to name just a few topics. One topic that you rarely hear about, but…