News
Best of 2020: Infusions in the Time of Coronavirus
After years of bemoaning the challenges of telemedicine, our rheumatology clinic transition entirely to a remote clinic in the space of a week. One of the few good things to come out of this crisis is that we may learn that in-person visits are not as critical as we thought, which may in turn help our specialty’s access issues. The only thing we can’t do remotely, however, are infusions.
Best of 2020: The COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Registry
What started out as online tweets and sharing newsfeed and case reports, has progressed to the formation of the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance, whose mission is to create an international rheumatology registry of patients affected by the disease in order to better understand the disease and guide clinicians in assessing and treating patients.
Best of 2020: A Rheumatologist’s Tips: Telemedicine in 6 Easy Steps
Ready for telemedicine/telerheumatology? Once you and your patient agree on a virtual visit, the following suggestions may help facilitate the interaction. If you have the ability and the capacity, record the visit.
Best of 2020: Rheumatic Disease Drugs and COVID-19
We are in the early stages of trying to limit the morbid and mortal consequences of the corona virus pandemic of 2020. Not surprisingly, the recommendations designed to limit exposure and damage continually highlight the fact that the elderly and immunosuppressed may be amongst the most severely affected should they become infected with this virus. This has led to a great deal of uncertainty by patients and providers about how rheumatic diseases and their treatments need to be specifically addressed.
Best of 2020: The Nine Lives of Hydroxychloroquine (Updated)
Hydroxychloroquine is one of many medications frequently used in rheumatology practice. Its remarkable versatility is attested by its routine use in lupus, in patients with an autoimmune coagulopathy, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, as well as in those with a low-level inflammatory arthropathy.
RheumNow Podcast – Up, Down & Turned Around (12.18.20)
Dr Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from this past week on RheumNow.com
ACIP Recommendations for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Use (including Special Populations)
CDC/MMWR
Following the FDA issuance of an Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) issued interim recommendations for the prevention of COVID-19 in persons aged ≥16 years.
Encouraging Rheumatology Fellowship Match for 2021
JJ Cush and ACR Press Release
The results of the National Residents Matching Program (NRMP) match in rheumatology are out and show that rheumatology fellowship was both competitive and highly sought after.
COVID-19 as a Leading Cause of Death in the USA
The exponential rise in deaths from the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the last several months is put into perspective by JAMA Viewpoint article noting that current US death rates of > 3000 per day from COVID-19 is greater than that seen in one day on September 11, 2001 (9/11 attacks, claimed 2988 lives) or by a fictional catastrophe of 15 Airbus 320 jetliners (150 passengers each) crashing daily.
Benlysta First Agent Approved for Lupus Nephritis
After the successful completion of the BLISS-LN trial and previewing the results at EULAR 2020 and ACR Convergence, GlaxoSmithKline announced yesterday that the FDA has approved belimumab (Benlysta) for use in adults with active lupus nephritis (LN) receiving background/standard therapy.
Filgotinib Bows Out of the RA Race in the USA
Gilead Sciences Inc announced yesterday that it has decided not to pursue the an rheumatoid arthritis (RA) indicatin for its once daily oral JAK inhibitor, filgotinib (also named Jyseleca).
