Presidential Gold Medal The highest award the ACR can bestow, the Presidential Gold Medal is awarded in recognition of outstanding achievements in rheumatology over an entire career. This year’s award went to James O’Dell, MD, the Stokes-Shackleford Professor of Internal Medicine, vice chair of internal medicine and chief of the Division of Rheumatology at the…
ACR Convergence 2020—At two plenary sessions, speakers highlighted key findings, including results on the QTc interval in patients on hydroxychloroquine, and data from a study on denosumab vs. alendronate for glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis. The QTc Interval & Hydroxychloroquine The safety profile and optimal dosing of hydroxychloroquine has been a topic for decades because it is known…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—At the ACR’s fully virtual annual meeting on Saturday, Nov. 7, Anthony S. Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, delivered a special lecture on COVID-19, from virology to therapy to vaccine development. Novel Coronavirus, Familiar Vectors When Chinese physicians first reported infections by what…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—In many ways, the current plethora of treatment options for rheumatoid arthritis patients represents an embarrassment of riches. However, while many therapeutics approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) are available, knowing the order in which to try these medications with patients can be quite challenging. In The Great Debate, held…
2020 has not only borne witness to a global pandemic, but also to increasing fervor in the fight for racial equity. In a wave of opposition to the systemic racism in the U.S., people have been in the streets demonstrating and protesting against social injustice and have taken to social media to promote political action….
Our hospitals have had their finest hour in the care of acutely ill inpatients during the COVID-19 pandemic, including dealing with allocation decisions fairly and transparently, maximizing good outcomes and remaining cognizant of the enduring ethics of healthcare. The honorable traditions of self-effacing conduct and acceptance of some level of personal risk by healthcare professionals…
Physical inactivity significantly affects disease burden and reduces the overall quality of life in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA), according to a study from Losina et al. The researchers calculated the total quality-adjusted life-years lost for U.S. patients with OA due to inactivity.
Editor’s note: EULAR 2020, the annual European Congress of Rheumatology, which was originally scheduled to be held in Frankfurt, Germany, starting June 3, was moved to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. EULAR 2020 e-CONGRESS—Although reducing medications is a reasonable option for some patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)—reducing cost and giving them a…
I should have paid more attention in medical school. If I had, I might have remembered enough about basic pathophysiology to know why everyone was suddenly pulling their patients off of lisinopril. For those of you who need a quick primer: When the pressure in the renal artery drops, the kidney secretes renin. Working together,…
(Reuters Health)—Age-adjusted hip fracture incidence has declined in the U.S. over the past four decades, aided by a decline in smoking and alcohol consumption, a new study suggests. Researchers examined data on 4,918 men and 5,634 women who participated in the prospective Framingham Heart Study from 1970 to 2010. Overall, the age-adjusted incidence of hip…