Whether you’re considering selling your practice, growing your practice or maintaining the status quo, it’s important to periodically do a checkup on your internal operations and compliance with the law. It’s always preferable to discover problems within your practice and correct them (if possible) before those issues are discovered by third parties, such as the…
(Reuters)—Patients in Texas can continue to receive remote diagnoses and treatment after telemedicine company Teladoc Inc won a preliminary court order blocking a new state rule requiring doctors to meet patients first. The ruling in Austin federal court on Friday came the same day that Teladoc filed its public registration with the U.S. Securities and…
Lyme disease is often considered a cause of chronic fatigue, pain and other incapacitating symptoms. This assumption stems from analyses of patients who seek retreatment for Lyme disease. However, a new study suggests that Lyme disease is not life altering in the long term for most patients. Specifically, patients with culture-confirmed Lyme disease have similar…
Ankylosing spondylitis primarily affects the joints and ligaments of the spine, but may also have an impact on other joints. Patients experience pain and stiffness that limit mobility in the back and other affected joints. Symptoms can come and go, last for long periods of time and be severe. Anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drugs are…
The costs of some disease-modifying therapies outpace prescription drug inflation, saddling insured patients with thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket payments and delayed or denied coverage, two new studies have shown. Disease-modifying therapies for multiple sclerosis are rising in cost five to seven times faster than inflation and cost more in the United States than in…
Bone microarchitecture is impaired in premenopausal women with active celiac disease, a new study from Argentina shows. “This report helps us to understand how bone is affected in celiac disease: increasing bone resorption and thinning trabeculae, even losing some number of them,” Dr. María Belén Zanchetta from Instituto de Diagnóstico e Investigaciones Metabólicas in Buenos…
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA) all exhibit multifaceted manifestations, and many patients exhibit overlapping comorbidities. However, patients with FMS are distinct from others in that they experience widespread pain, fatigue and mood changes, including anxiety and depression. Although its hallmark symptom of pain causes rheumatologists to consider FMS a pain disorder,…
The classic American social studies lesson is How a Bill Becomes a Law, but a more pertinent lesson for U.S. rheumatologists today may be How a Dollar Bill Becomes a PAC. This article is a nuts-and-bolts primer on how exactly RheumPAC works. The purpose is to inform readers about how and why to participate. Money…
At the 2014 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in Boston, the Rheumatology Research Foundation staff sat down with a few ACR and ARHP members to get their take on what the Foundation’s 30th anniversary means to them. We spoke with current and former leaders of the Foundation and the ACR, as well as numerous Foundation award recipients,…
Study proposes increased active C5a recruits neutrophils to arthritic joints to maintain inflammation