Although most systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients don’t develop macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), the approximately 10% who do have this serious complication can experience widespread, massive inflammation, debilitating symptoms and even death. To improve understanding of MAS among physicians and advance efforts to develop effective therapies to treat it, a panel of 28 international pediatric…
Look inside the oral cavity of a patient for answers that go beyond what we perceive as the dentist’s domain. So goes the thinking of medical professionals interested in how oral health and bacteria-driven disease, such as periodontitis, may be linked to rheumatic disease, especially rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Bad bacteria that live in the mouth…
A majority of state legislatures have concluded their work for 2016. The ACR’s state advocacy efforts continued to focus on policy benefiting rheumatologists and patients alike. The two dominant issues this year were biosimilar substitution and step therapy. Biosimilar Substitution Biosimilar substitution remains the most prevalent issue throughout the states. The ACR continues to monitor…
A passion to improve the clinical reasoning skills of future doctors led Maria Dall’Era, MD, associate professor of medicine and director of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Lupus Clinic, to create a revolutionary application for smartphones and tablets that could modernize medical education. With funding from the Rheumatology Research Foundation’s Clinician Scholar Educator…
Can We Stay Forever Young? May your heart always be joyful And may your song always be sung May you stay forever young Forever Young —Bob Dylan Beneath the rubric of orphan diseases reside some rare conditions and others that are extraordinarily uncommon. These are the diseases that most physicians either never to get to…
(Reuters Health)—In states that expanded either their Medicaid programs or private insurance options for low-income Americans, beneficiaries used more outpatient and preventive care and less emergency care. They also had better subjective overall health, compared with low-income residents of states with no expanded coverage. All states participate in Medicaid, a partnership with the federal government…
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—Cephalon has reached a $125 million settlement with 48 states in connection with its alleged efforts to delay generic versions of its blockbuster sleep disorder drug modafinil (Provigil) from entering the market, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Thursday. The settlement with Cephalon, now owned by Teva Pharmaceuticals, comes a little more…
(Reuters)—Banner Health, a non-profit organization that runs a chain of hospitals, says hackers may have gained unauthorized access to patient, physician and beneficiary data. Phoenix-based Banner said it was notifying 3.7 million patients, health plan members, food and beverage customers, physicians and healthcare providers about the attack, which occurred between June 23 and July 7….
The ACR will seek Congressional action if the Medicare Part B demonstration project proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is not significantly altered by the agency. Today, Medicare Part B generally pays physicians and hospital outpatient departments the average sales price of a drug, plus a 6% add-on, minus reductions required…
In June, state lawmakers in New York passed legislation on step therapy designed to help ensure patient access to the best and most appropriate care. Step therapy mandates that a patient with a specific condition receive prescribed drugs approved for that condition in the order that an insurance company determines it will cover as the…