All athletes—amateur and professional—should understand their risks for developing injury-related arthritis. Rheumatologists and other physicians at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York take a rapid approach to treating athletes, often considering intense physical therapy, innovative treatments and surgery much sooner than for the average patient—all to keep joints healthy and enable athletes to play for as long as possible…
Obesity has an established systemic inflammatory component. Could that be a trigger for the inflammation seen in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other rheumatic diseases? Although there is no direct scientific evidence, both mechanistic and epidemiologic clues do give some intriguing suggestions of a possible link. “At first, we thought that fat was involved only in…
It’s not uncommon for a new patient to arrive at the medical offices of Alan Schenk, MD, in Laguna Woods, Calif., and immediately ask him about his musical career. In addition to being a board-certified rheumatologist for the past 32 years, Dr. Schenk is also an accomplished acoustic jazz guitarist and mandolin player. Music First “I…
LONDON—Rheumatologists need to make the management of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) “a little more complex,” treating different tissues individually and doing more to help treat and prevent co-morbidities, an expert said here at the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) 2016. Iain McInnes, MD, PhD, director of the Research Institute for Infection, Immunity…
Are too many patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia? The co-authors of one new study believe that close to 75% of patients who have received a clinical fibromyalgia diagnosis do not meet the 2010 Preliminary American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Criteria for Fibromyalgia.1 They say these patients are false-positive and may be taking treatments they don’t need….
Richard Meehan, MD, can still hear the distinctive sound of footsteps that would travel along a gravel path toward his wooden hut in the middle of the night in Iraq. “I’d hear somebody walk from the command post, either toward my hut or the operations officer who slept in the hut next to mine,” says…
Connect with colleagues at the Basic Research Conference (BRC) and the Clinical Research Conference (CRC) pre-meeting courses at the 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting! The ACR has an exceptional array of research leaders lined up for this year’s BRC and CRC sessions on Friday, Nov. 11, and Saturday, Nov. 12 in Washington, D.C. Get ready to…
After extensive research and careful deliberation, you have finally made the exciting but daunting decision to purchase a healthcare practice. You know that in the next couple of months you are going to need to examine the practice from a different perspective—one of a future owner. You also recognize that in order to facilitate the…
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again. —Mother Goose I feel like a female Humpty Dumpty. Recently I took a great fall, and now I am in the process of being put together again. I was…
Outside Exam Room No. 5, the chart rack was empty, so I assumed my new consult was late. Just in case, I looked back over my shoulder as I passed by the partially open door and glimpsed the lower half of a woman holding a three-ringed binder on her lap. I squinted and took a…