Search results for: liver

French ‘Cannabis’ Drug Trial Leaves 1 Brain Dead, 5 Injured

Matthias Blamont | January 19, 2016

PARIS (Reuters)—One person has been left brain dead and five others are in a serious condition after taking part in a clinical trial in western France of an experimental medicine from an unnamed drug company, the French health ministry said on Friday, Jan. 15. The ministry did not say what the medicine was intended to be used…

New Venture Aims to Fill Customer-Service Void in Healthcare

Jonathan Weber | January 14, 2016

(Reuters)—Three large U.S. venture capital firms are betting that hospitals will buy into a new service designed to help healthcare providers treat their patients more like upscale hotels treat their customers. The new company, called Docent Health, is creating software and mobile applications that will help organize and monitor every aspect of an individual’s hospital…

Sarilumab Is Effective for RA, Pregabalin Fails to Meet Study Endpoint & Ibuprofen Can Be Administered with a Patch

Michele B. Kaufman, PharmD, BCGP | January 13, 2016

Sarilumab is proving effective for treating RA. In a clinical trial, pregabalin did not meet its endpoint for treating post-traumatic peripheral neuropathic pain. And a 12-hour ibuprofen patch is in development…

Living with RA: Study Examines the Value of Patient Involvement in Creating Clinical Practice Guidelines

Arthritis Care & Research | January 6, 2016

“The lived experience with RA is itself a valuable form of expertise,” writes Dr. Liana Fraenkel, MD, MPH, and her colleagues in their latest research. To examine the value of this expertise and how it can be incorporated into clinical practice guidelines, researchers developed 18 questions for which two panels—one physician dominated and one comprising entirely patients—would develop recommendations. For a majority of these questions, the patient panel made the same recommendations as the physician panel, with similar recommendation strengths…

New President Dr. Von Feldt Looks at Where ACR Is Headed in 2016

Joan M. Von Feldt, MD, MSEd, FACR, FACP | December 17, 2015

I am honored, humbled and excited to serve as your ACR president. I’d like to share the following background information to illustrate the diverse set of life experiences I draw from to represent the ACR membership effectively. Personal Background Thanks to my mom, who was born and raised in Guatemala, I am bilingual in Spanish…

Looking Back on Rheumatology in 2015, Leaping Forward to the Year Ahead

Simon M. Helfgott, MD | December 16, 2015

My dear friends, we come to praise Caesar. As we march toward 2016, we ought to acknowledge the great Roman emperor’s role in creating a proper calendar. At the start of Caesar’s reign, the calendar year lasted 355 days, 10¼ days fewer than the time it took the earth to fully orbit the sun.1 Although…

A Brief History of American Rheumatology

Maria J. Antonelli, MD, Cassandra M. Calabrese, DO, Leonard H. Calabrese, DO, & Irving Kushner, MD | December 16, 2015

In medicine, as in all other areas of human endeavor, we cannot really understand where we are if we don’t understand how we arrived here. American rheumatology traces its origins nine decades back to Europe, when the International Committee on Rheumatism was founded by Jan van Breeman in 1925 at a European meeting of medical…

Hospital Safety Culture Key to Improving Surgical Results

Megan Brooks | December 15, 2015

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The “safety culture” of a hospital may be just as important in delivering high-quality surgical patient care as more technical issues like surgeon skill and operating room equipment, according to a new study. “The study supports what many surgeons have known for a long time, and that is that the organizational culture…

FDA Approves Drug to Counter Opioid ODs

Michele B. Kaufman, PharmD, BCGP | December 9, 2015

The FDA recently approved a form of naloxone hydrochloride in a nasal spray that will help counter opioid overdoses. The FDA also approved an ibuprofen injection as an adjunct to opioids for use in children 6 months and older…

Advocating with You—Grassroots Advocacy: Media Outreach 101

From the College | December 8, 2015

Rheumatologists must speak for themselves and their patients, because no one else will speak for us. Advocacy is necessary to educate elected officials and preserve our ability to provide the best care to our patients. One way to reach these officials is through the local media. Here are some tips on how to reach out to reporters, write op-eds and letters, and become a knowledgeable resource for your community…