ROME, Italy—The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) annual congress (EULAR 2015) was a much-anticipated event, with more than 14,000 delegates attending from far and wide. The Health Professional Standing Committee was particularly delighted to have planned a program that provided the latest in research terms but also an eclectic mix of valuable topics for health…
In diagnosing and treating a disease that is rapidly gaining recognition worldwide since it was first recognized in Japan in 2003, 42 experts from 10 different countries recently collaborated to discuss and review the current experience and data on IgG4-related disease. The result is the “International Consensus Guidance Statement on the Management and Treatment of…
Technology is taking medicine and the Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic to unexpected places. The famed institutions are testing a new way to deliver medical care, with walk-in kiosks mobilized to reach patients who may be too far away, too short on time or facing other challenges that keep them from a traditional doctor’s office…
When the local hospital approaches you about selling your practice and converting it to a provider-based outpatient department, you may want to hear them out. There are many benefits to becoming a department of the hospital, but what would it mean for you and the practice you worked tirelessly to build? What Does It Mean…
Every day, rheumatology patients live with the realities of having a chronic disease that requires a lifetime of treatment. This knowledge can be an emotional burden, and some people deal with it better than others. Emerging research is showing that those patients who exhibit emotional control are better able to cope and ultimately experience a…
Dr. Simon Helfgott’s essay, “Barking at the Moon,” in the July 2015 issue of The Rheumatologist, about the unintended consequences of EHRs (electronic health records) prompted me to share my experience regarding the newly recognized KeMo disease. Keyboarding and mouse-clicking (KeMo) activity now consumes about 50% of the medical clinician’s day, as the modern EHRs…
As the rheumatology fellowship program director at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Miss., Vikas Majithia, MD, MPH, trains the next generation of rheumatologists. With the help of funding from the Rheumatology Research Foundation, he has not only expanded the training spots for rheumatology fellows at his institution, he also provides patients with…
Level 3 Visit with Primary Diagnosis of Osteoarthritis A 36-year-old patient presents with unilateral primary osteoarthritis of the left hip. She reports her groin pain as 7 on a scale of 1–10. When she tries to straighten her left leg, she experiences increased groin pain. She is currently taking over-the-counter medication to relieve the pain,…
CPT codes: 99213 Diagnosis Codes: ICD-9: 715.15, 278.01 ICD-10: M16.12, E66.01, Z68.41 This encounter is coded as 99213 as follows: History—The history of present illness was extended. The review of systems was comprehensive, and no past family social history was documented. This makes the history level expanded problem focused. Examination—There were eight systems examined. This…
One parent wishes that she could have consulted a crystal ball at the beginning of her daughter’s illness to have “some kind of idea of what we were in for. There are so many stages of letting go of the idea of what your little kid is in for in life, what they are going…