This session focused on the challenges that mandate change in the healthcare system, looked at high-priority improvement opportunities, discussed the use of continuous quality improvement methods to manage change, and emphasized the importance "thinking in systems."

The impetus for Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children’s switch to a centralized system came about because the hospital administrators wanted patients communicating with live people. An admirable goal for sure, but with only two live people available to take calls at anyone time, patients often ended up spending 15 minutes on hold waiting for a human voice, becoming frustrated and hanging up.

If you’ve never considered clinical research appropriate for your portfolio of service offerings, or have, but decided it’s too daunting of a task, Alvin Wells lays out the steps necessary to integrate this personally and financially rewarding aspect of medicine into your practice.

The prevalence of specialty pharmacy networks is increasing and in the coming years will threaten the existence of the “buy-and-bill” model that currently guides many physician drug-purchasing habits. Will you be ready?

Fibromyalgia is a complex illness, especially when there are some healthcare professionals who do not consider it to be an illness. However, there is a high prevalence of fibromyalgia (3-4.7% of the general population) and patients who have it experience poor quality of life and place a high economic burden on themselves, their families, and society.

All sensory areas were activated in the brains of fibromyalgia sufferers during pain stimuli according to brain scans made by University of Michigan researchers. Healthy controls showed littled to no activity.

An international research team believes that its cluster analysis tool can be used to identify effective treatment modalities for a host of maladies using numerous different therapies.

Despite findings from other studies indicating that somnolence is a sometimes significant adverse effect in pregabalin use, this study suggests that it is statistically insignificant.

A new study finds that pindolol is highly effective for the treatment of fibromyalgia symptoms manifesting themselves through the autonomic nervous system.

The 2009 American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals Scientific Meeting will feature several “Curbside Consult/Ask the Professors” sessions. Designed to feature information and discussion about “difficult management decisions that must be made in the absence of strong data,” these sessions give attendees the opportunity to “compare their personal management approaches” to the clinical problems outlined in the featured vignettes and scenarios with those of “the academic expert consultants and other clinicians in the audience.”

The Monday morning sessions at the 2009 American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals featured several presentations that focused on cognitive functioning in fibromyalgia and lupus.

In this intimate session, discussion focused on the most recent thoughts regarding the pathophysiology of fibromyalgia and related disorders.

Dozens of posters were presented under the "Fibromyalgia and Soft Tissue Disorders" umbrella during the morning of day 4 at the American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals 2009 Annual Scientific Sessions. Among the highlights are the following.

Among the numerous posters on display under the "Fibromyalgia and Soft Tissue Disorders" heading on day 4 at the American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals 2009 Annual Scientific Sessions were posters focused on the development of a fibromyalgia (FM) responder index, anxiety and depression among patients with FM, tai chi as an effective treatment of FM, and sex differences in predictors of increased symptoms after exercise and sleep restriction in patients with such chronic pain disorders as fibromyalgia.

During this hour-and-one-half concurrent abstract session, moderated by Jennifer M. Hootman, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atalanta, GA, a half-dozen abstracts were presented, focusing on health-related quality of life among adults with arthritis, the impact of arthritis and other chronic conditions on community participation, quality of non-pharmacologic care for patients with osteoarthritis, social network support, and restrictions in participating in life situations among patients with RA.

A handful of abstracts were presented during this session, focusing on the link between fibromyalgia fatigue and kynurenine pathway activity, glutamate in the anterior insula, the effects of fatigue on response to pain, and neurocortical representation of locus of control in patients with fibromyalgia.