CHICAGO—Sherine E. Gabriel, MD, MSc, professor of medicine at Rutgers Medical School in Newark, N.J., and a past president of the ACR, presented an overview of cardiovascular disease and rheumatology on a Saturday morning to a room overflowing with rheumatologists attending the ACR’s State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium in April. She noted that physicians have known for a…
CHICAGO—Caryn A. Libbey, MD, clinical associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, described the evolving in our understanding of amyloid at the ACR’s State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium in April. Amyloidosis is a rare disease that is often underdiagnosed and undertreated. “Even though this disease has been around for 150 years, I still consider it…
Management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is complex. The ever-expanding availability of new drugs requires that rheumatologists and patients constantly consider treatment strategies and targets aimed at both disease control and symptom relief while remaining cognizant of the increasing high cost of emerging medications. Given such complexity, guidelines to inform rheumatologists about the most recent developments…
Awareness can be an ambiguous term, but it makes all the difference in rheumatology. The first weeks and months following the onset of rheumatic disease symptoms are known as the window of opportunity. Prompt treatment can prevent damage to joints and other organs, improve long-term function and increase the likelihood of achieving disease remission. But…
On July 3, the Rheumatology Research Foundation announced the names of 63 rheumatology trainees, educators, clinicians, investigators and health professionals who will receive Foundation-funded awards. In support of the Foundation’s mission to improve the health of people with rheumatic diseases, the awards help recruit and train the next generation of rheumatology professionals and advance research…
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…
The first clinical practice guidelines for Sjögren’s syndrome have been released, the culmination of an initiative by the Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation.1 These standard-of-care recommendations are intended to provide consistency in practice patterns, inform coverage and reimbursement policies, lead to the design and implementation of educational programs, highlight the needs for future research and fill a…
Here’s a trivia question: Where were the big ideas for the field of biotechnology first discussed? Answer: At a since-demolished delicatessen in Waikiki Beach, Hawaii. Go figure. The year was 1972, and Stanley Cohen, MD, professor of medicine at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and Herbert Boyer, PhD, a former professor and biochemist at the…
Rheumatologists treating HIV patients in 2017 must think through many important factors as this population ages. As we continue to learn, rheumatologists must consider important drug–drug interactions, relatively uncommon rheumatological presentations of HIV, as well as specific diagnostic challenges. Working closely with infectious disease specialists is the best way to achieve optimum care for this…
New methods of gene sequencing have resulted in improved identification of mutations in patients and increased availability of genetic testing in rare diseases. Despite these exciting advances, a majority of patients lack identifiable mutations and the underlying disease etiology remains an enigma. Somatic mosaicism (SM) may be an explanation for some of these clinically challenging…