In this episode, Dr. Bharat Kumar, physician editor of The Rheumatologist, discusses the definition of empathy and its role in rheumatology.
What Changes May the Next Decade Bring to Rheumatology?
Is it 2024 already? It seems like yesterday that I stuffed all my earthly belongings into my black Volkswagen Jetta and headed from Lexington, Ky., to Iowa City, Iowa, to start my rheumatology fellowship.1 That was 10 years ago. Now, in 2024, as I go online—particularly on social media—and see the various happy, smiling faces…
The Role of Empathy in Therapeutic Relationships
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. I was at a mandatory “training session” on patient communication for all clinicians at my institution. There, I was being coached on how to properly talk to patients. In theory, this isn’t a bad thing—we all need more education on how to facilitate inclusive and equitable conversations with…
Immunology: What Is It Good For?
I was cleaning out an old storage closet in my parents’ house in Florida when I stumbled across some notes I took in medical school. As I leafed through pages and pages of notes filled with doodles and reminders, I found a statement that gave me pause: “Immunology—what is it good for?!” To be honest,…
Design Thinking & The Rheumatologist
If you’ve been a long-time reader of The Rheumatologist, you may have noticed that things look just a little different in this issue. The logo has changed, the font appears distinct, and the bylines are, for lack of a better term, aligned differently. If you’re looking at this online, the menus have changed somewhat, and…
Don’t Let a Good Mentor Get Away
“When you get a good mentor, don’t let ’em be the one that got away.” Richard Brasington Jr., MD, FACP, MACR, told me this about a decade ago when I was a rheumatology fellowship applicant and first met him. It was clear the statement was influenced by his love of fishing. Dr. Brasington’s office was…
How to Make Your Apologies Count
Mistakes are a part of life. In fact, they are a large part of my life. Whether uncovering inborn errors of immunity, teaching about diagnostic errors, identifying systemic lapses in high-quality care or correcting spelling errors in manuscripts, my entire being is centered on studying and examining mistakes. To a certain degree, I feel like…
Appreciative Rheumatology: Positivity Beyond Serologies
Spam, spam, advertisement, spam … wait wait, what’s this? A small envelope, addressed from Maine. I wonder what this is about? Usually, when I get an envelope this size, it’s a letter from someone trying to sell me something or complain about something I have no control over. So imagine my surprise when I found…
How a Trip to the Vet Made Me a Better Doc
A plain X-ray film appeared on the computer screen—a humerus, a radius and an ulna were all visible. My pupils zoomed around the screen, and on initial inspection, everything looked fine. However, this X-ray was unlike any film I had ever reviewed. You see, it was for my then 4-year-old puppy, Lexi. My sweet little…
Revisiting Our Assumptions & Preconceptions
Admittedly, there’s not much to see on a country road 100 miles southwest of Iowa City, Iowa. It’s especially true in winter, when a blanket of white snow obscures any and all features of the seemingly endless fields of corn and soy. In the radiance of fresh snow on a bright winter day, even the…
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