Volunteer leaders who are community rheumatologists share their thoughts about the professional and personal benefits of serving on ACR committees and encourage others to get involved.
The ACR has sent a letter to Cigna expressing opposition to the initiative, which jeopardizes patients’ health, interferes with medical decision making, undermines the doctor-patient relationship and may disproportionately affect patients of lower socioeconomic status.
As a member of the ACR Government Affairs Committee, Mohammad Kamran, MD, has embraced virtual advocacy as a way to make a difference for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Women remain underrepresented in research and may receive less funding than men, according to a recent study that describes differences in sex representation among U.S. National Institutes of Health study sections.
Clinicians can help their patients tap into personal resilience, and such characteristics as grit, gratitude and grace, to manage their chronic pain, says Afton L. Hassett, PsyD.
In a recent study, researchers designed an intervention centered on communication and led by nurses to address discontinuation rates among patients who had switched to a biosimilar. The nurses’ insight and experience reduced the nocebo effect during the intervention, which had an 84% retention rate for patients taking a biosimilar after one year.
When it comes to advocating for rheumatology, it’s never too early or late in your career to begin, and no effort is too small to have an impact, says Dr. Ziglar, a private practitioner and member of the Government Affairs Committee.
A better understanding of knowledge gaps and increased engagement of underrepresented communities are needed to diversify rheumatology patient data in clinical datasets, registries and randomized clinical trials.
Pediatric rheumatologists are few and far between in rural America. Financial incentives, such as loan repayment, may help draw more providers to the subspecialty and the underserved regions of the U.S.