Last month, a momentous occurrence took place in Cleveland: after 35 years, the enoteca and restaurant, Primo Vino, closed its doors to make way for an exciting development in Cleveland’s Little Italy. Allow me to make the rheumatology connection.
I recently had a follow up with an SLE patient who wanted to discuss sun protection options since moving to Dallas, where we have 232 days of sunshine yearly. Sun protection is important for our patients. As rheumatologists, we have an obligation to go beyond 'avoid the sun or wear sunscreen when you're out' platitudes.
The antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a common disorder affecting patients with and without autoimmune disease. Despite wider recognition of APS among physicians as well as the expanding research collaborations, many clinical questions are still encountered in clinical practice, which require further evidence-based studies. In this “Across the Table” edition, Drs. Cush and Erkan discuss some of these APS-related questions. Our guest expert, Dr. Doruk Erkan offers up his approach to diagnosis and management of APS.
A new patient came in today; he noted that he made an appointment with me after reading a favorable online review on YELP about our practice.
Everyone gets their education about drug-related infection risk from television ads. Rheumatologists should know what the real risks are and educate their patients that they have a higher than normal rate of nonserious infections. But the infection risk is way more related to inflammation than any specific drug risk.
Today in clinic, I saw a patient with longstanding seropositive, erosive rheumatoid arthritis who had been treated with etanercept for over 10 years. She had undergone valve replacement years ago for regurgitation.
Busy days, overbooked patients and EMR overloads will certainly derail your day, especially if you don’t have a system to optimize efficiency. However, in your harried efforts you may overlook several simple, smart, if not crucial, tasks while seeing your next patient.
Angie is my last patient before lunch. I've known her since her RA diagnosis at age 17 years. And for the last 7 years, she’s matured into a fabulous young woman who has adeptly grown her professional life, her dating life and developed her independence, despite her severely active rheumatoid arthritis. But today I see she has a troubled and anxious look as I greet her.
It's Monday morning and my first patient is a newly diagnosed rheumatoid. This is his first visit back after starting methotrexate 6 weeks ago. Despite doing great and in remission with only one active joint, he asks, “Are sure this is RA? Or could this be Still’s disease?” Admittedly, this is a weird second-visit question, but I was impressed.
A recent analysis of 3 groups of treatment-naïve, early rheumatoid arthritis (ERA) patients looked at the factors that influenced the choice of therapy.
Nearly half of all available vacation days go unused and over 40% of Americans failed to use any vacation days in 2015. Common sense says that taking more time off (not less) is likely to lead to increased work productivity. Your next vacation is essential to building a better you. Here are some tips to insure you get the most from your time off.
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