Patients experience fevers for many reasons, but can they help physicians diagnose disease? Using modern technology and social media, Jonathan S. Hausmann, MD, is working to further the understanding of body temperatures…

Subcategories:Clinical Criteria/GuidelinesEthicsLegal UpdatesLegislation & AdvocacyMeeting ReportsResearch Rheum
The ACR/CHEST ILD Guidelines in Practice, a video
In collaboration with the American College of Chest Physicians, the ACR released two new comprehensive guidelines aimed at improving the screening, monitoring, and treatment of patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) secondary to systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs). Recently, Sindhu R. Johnson, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada, director of the Toronto Scleroderma Program and principal investigator for the guideline, and Elana J. Bernstein, MD, MSc, Florence Irving associate professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at Columbia University, New York City, and co-first author, presented a webinar to talk about how the guidelines were developed and present some of the recommendations and their rationale: Watch the recording now!
Patients experience fevers for many reasons, but can they help physicians diagnose disease? Using modern technology and social media, Jonathan S. Hausmann, MD, is working to further the understanding of body temperatures…
Opportunities and challenges will continue to face the rheumatology community in 2017. In response to these challenges, the ACR has outlined its federal– and state-level legislative and regulatory healthcare priorities for the year. Howard Blumstein, MD, chair of the ACR Affiliate Society Council, says that achieving at least some of these priorities at the state…
Reuters Staff |
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—U.S. President-elect Donald Trump aims to replace Obamacare with a plan that would envisage “insurance for everybody,” he said in an interview with the Washington Post published on Sunday night. Trump did not give the newspaper specifics about his proposals to replace Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature health insurance law, but said the plan…
Eight years ago, the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs embarked on a comprehensive review of the AMA Code of Medical Ethics. What emerged after years of hard effort, intensive feedback and thoughtful revisions was a modernized version of the guide, which the AMA House of Delegates voted to adopt in…
Lisa Rapaport |
(Reuters Health)—More aggressive malpractice climates don’t necessarily protect patients from surgical complications, a new study suggests. Supporters of medical malpractice laws that make it easier for patients to sue doctors say these protections are necessary to improve care. But in the current study, the risk of litigation didn’t translate into better outcomes, said study leader…
Andrew Chung |
NEW YORK (Reuters)—The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a dispute over whether companies that make copycat versions of biologic drugs must wait six months after winning federal approval to begin selling them. The justices will take up an appeal by Novartis AG of a 2015 federal appeals court decision that prevented the…
Toni Clarke |
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. Senate will take its first steps toward repealing President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform act by the end of the week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Sunday. Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” McConnell said: “There ought not to be a great gap” between repealing the act and replacing…
Current guidelines for the long-term management of gout recommend a combination of lifestyle management and/or pharmacotherapy to lower serum UA levels to <6.0 mg/dL in most patients or <5.0 mg/dL in patients with more severe disease. Allopurinol is the most widely used xanthine oxidase inhibitor and is recommended in treatment guidelines as a first-line urate-lowering…
From the College |
When the controversial Medicare Part B Drug Payment Model final rule was not released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as expected before Nov. 21, it signaled an increasing likelihood of defeat for the proposed rule—a signal proved true on Dec. 15. A spokesperson for the CMS said, “After considering comments, CMS…
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Total joint arthroplasty is one of the most common surgical procedures performed on adults with end-stage arthritis. One recent estimate showed that 2.5 million individuals in the U.S. are living with a total hip replacement and 4.7 million are living with knee replacements. For their patients with inflammatory arthritis, rheumatologists and orthopedic surgeons must…