Patients who reviewed an industry-sponsored booklet about a commonly used rheumatoid arthritis drug were twice as likely to choose the proposed therapy as were patients who reviewed similar decision-aid material presented in a neutral manner, according to a recent study. Richard Martin, MD, MA, professor of medicine, rheumatology, at Michigan State University College of Human…
Videos designed to help patients understand and manage chronic rheumatologic diseases can lead to gains in clarity about the disease duration, symptoms, medications, and the importance of regular visits with a physician. A study published in a recent issue of Arthritis Care & Research looks at the development and impact of three educational videos for…
When Jeanne Scott first entered nursing school, she planned to become a women’s health nurse practitioner. She was not expecting her final clinical placement in rheumatology to change the entire course of her career. “Truthfully, I did not understand what rheumatology practitioners did until this introduction to the field,” says Ms. Scott, who describes being…
Each fall, the ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting takes place in a major U.S. city. More than 15,000 people fill the cavernous halls of the area convention center and nearby hotels to attend scientific and educational sessions, scan the latest data on posters and mingle with colleagues at the annual Presidents’ Reception. What most attendees may not…
Picture this: It’s 3 o’clock in the morning. You can’t sleep. You settle in front of the television to watch a rerun of Dirty Dancing. And then it hits you: Ask your doctor. Even as your eyelids sag, some part of your primitive forebrain snaps to attention. Medical training has turned us all into multitaskers,…
People can support causes, committees, campaigns, etc. in infinite ways. Members of the ACR/ARHP can see their efforts magnified via an investment in the ACR’s political action committee, RheumPAC. Your contribution goes directly to help support rheumatology and rheumatologists around the country. Proof of any group’s success can be seen in the satisfaction of its…
Two years ago, veteran leaders of the Pennsylvania Rheumatology Society (PRS)—established 20 years prior—made an important decision to get early career rheumatologists more involved. “We thought younger rheumatologists were under-represented, and we wanted to give them a voice [so they would] better understand a wider range of practice issues our society could address,” explains Alfred…
In his clinic as a third-year fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Ethan Craig, MD, MHS, says it’s not always easy to hear about patients struggling with step therapy or other barriers to treatment. However, as a member of the ACR’s Government Affairs Committee (GAC), he says his work to understand and improve policy…
Lurie Prize Goes to Autoimmune Researcher Zhijian “James” Chen, PhD, is this year’s recipient of the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences for his 2012 discovery of the enzyme cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS). Dr. Chen received the prize at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health Award Ceremony in May. His work revealed the paradoxical…
In addition to the classroom and exam room, the other room Joseph Flood, MD, enjoys spending time in is the kitchen. With a mother who worked as a local tavern cook and a policeman father who enjoyed preparing tasty meals as much as arresting bad guys, Dr. Flood, a rheumatologist at the Columbus Arthritis Center…