First Appearances I watched the old man, his back painfully bent, shuffle toward the scale. A blocky rigidity draped over him. His feet seemed stuck to the floor. His head hung heavily over his chest. Observing him from the end of the hallway, instead of a face, I saw only a mound of shaggy, matted…
The 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting will be in San Diego, Nov. 3–8. Here is a taste of what this unique and fun city offers attendees…
Greetings from Washington, D.C. Your advocacy team had another busy month. Unlike my prior updates, and in order to keep our focus on health policy, I avoid mentioning anything about Washington investigations into obstruction of justice, collusion, etc. You get enough of that elsewhere. The Healthcare Bill Obamacare repeal and reform efforts are speeding up….
(Reuters Health)—Health insurance saves lives—that’s the conclusion of a report released on Monday, just in time to weigh into the debate among Senate Republicans considering a bill that could strip millions of Americans of coverage. “Overwhelming scientific evidence shows that lack of insurance is sometimes deadly,” co-author Dr. David Himmelstein, a professor at the City…
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—Republican leaders were in a fierce push on Tuesday to shore up support for a healthcare bill in the U.S. Senate after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said 22 million Americans would lose insurance over the next decade under the measure. Vice President Mike Pence is expected to travel to Capitol Hill on Tuesday…
The American College of Rheumatology has always stood for affordable and accessible healthcare coverage for the 54 million Americans living with rheumatic diseases. We are concerned the discussion draft of the Better Care Reconciliation Act introduced by Senate leadership this morning falls short of that goal. We stand ready to work with the Senate leadership…
Medical education programs are changing. Tiffany Lin, MD, discusses a curriculum designed around patient-centered case studies and why a new accreditation process is a welcome change…
In drug news, a generic 2% diclofenac sodium solution is now available, denosumab is promising to treat osteoporosis, and the FDA has approved sarilumab to treat adults with RA…
For a rheumatology practice, rooming time can be leveraged to improve efficiency and patient care. Christie Bartels, MD, MS, and colleagues have studied this time frame and developed data-based tips and tools to decrease variation among staff and streamline practices…
If you speak to any advocate for rheumatology, each of us has an “Aha! moment,” when we learned the importance of advocacy. My own came a dozen years ago. I was meeting with a legislative aide to a local congressman who was a senior member of the committee overseeing Medicare. He introduced himself as the…