Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific and medical conferences began to be canceled or postponed. Later, once the pandemic endured beyond the scope of weeks to months, many organizations shifted conferences to a virtual format. Now, as the federal government has ended the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, effective mitigation measures, including vaccination, rapid testing, masking…
Modern healthcare is, for better or for worse, the hybrid of many different fields—some that are expected, such as biomedical science, and others that are less well appreciated, such as astrology and palmistry. One modern contributor to healthcare is management. Nowadays, we’re inundated with all sorts of jargon from the business and policy worlds: turnover,…
Healthcare is a high-priority target for cyber criminals. State-level measures, such as a new Florida law, fail to address the root problems of data security but may affect how providers manage patient data.
We are honored to announce that The Rheumatologist has received two Awards of Excellence from APEX 2023 for content published in calendar year 2022: an Award of Excellence in the category of Public Health Concerns—Health & Medical for the editorial supplement to the April issue, COVID-19: What We Know, and an Award of Excellence for…
We were sad to learn that Rodanthi C. Kitridou, MD, MACR, passed away July 6, 2023, after a long illness. Dr. Kitridou was the longtime director of clinical rheumatology at at LAC/USC Medical Center in Los Angeles.
On July 13, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the CY 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. This annual rule outlines policies related to provider reimbursement, coverage of telehealth services, review of specific codes, refinement of evaluation and management codes and updates to the Quality Payment Program.
The Voice of Rheumatology was established as an informal coalition to aid effective collaborations on issues important to the rheumatology community. The group has grown to become an integral mechanism for the exchange of information among groups including the ACR, Arthritis Foundation, Coalition of State Rheumatology Organizations (CSRO), Alliance for Women in Rheumatology and more to strengthen partnerships on a range of federal, state and regulatory issues.
On July 1, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina introduced a machine-learning technology platform to make decisions about patients’ care and treatment. The ACR opposes its use on grounds that it may harm patients’ access to treatment and undermine the doctor-patient relationship.
PHILADELPHIA—The fellows-in-training (FIT) programs at ACR annual meetings are highly valued educational sessions that also offer a forum for fellows to meet and connect with trainees from other programs. Fellows who were not able to meet in person during the pandemic years, particularly those who were in their second or third year of training, welcomed…
Let’s get to the point. Life is busy. Between my job as a rheumatologist, my volunteer work for the ACR, and parenthood, staying organized is a challenge. I’ve tried numerous organizational strategies whose logistics failed to meet my needs. My online calendar was too small to add detail. Events I needed to track monthly or…