The HCPLive Rheumatology condition center page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on rheumatologic disease. This page consists of interviews, articles, podcasts, and videos on the research, treatment and development of therapies for arthritis, gout, nr-AxSpA, and more.
March 27th 2024
The selective, allosteric tyrosine kinase 2 inhibitor demonstrated significant and clinically meaningful improvements in PROs versus placebo in a phase 2 trial of patients with PsA.
"REEL" Time Patient Counseling™: Integrating Biosimilars into the Clinical Conversation
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EGPA: Highlighting the Patient Journey to Improve the Differential Diagnosis and Accelerate the Initiation of Guideline-Based Care
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Expert Illustrations & Commentaries™: Envisioning Novel Therapeutic Approaches to Managing ANCA-associated Vasculitis
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Clinical Consultations™: Optimal Approaches to Recognizing and Treating ANCA-Associated Vasculitis
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Coronary artery calcification common with lupus
December 6th 2009The prevalence and extent of vascular calcification over the thoracic aorta and coronary and carotid arteries are greater in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) than in healthy persons. Because the process of atherosclerosis related to SLE disease activity is diffuse and widespread rather than limited to the coronary arteries, coronary calcification used alone as a marker for atherosclerosis may not disclose the association.
Do “red flags” signal serious pathology with low back pain?
December 6th 2009When patients present to primary care physicians with acute low back pain (LBP), a serious causative underlying pathology-cancer, fracture, or infection-is seldom identified. Some recommended “red flag” screening questions have high false-positive rates, casting doubt on the value of looking for bigger trouble when none is obvious.
Hip fractures going down but comorbidities going up
December 6th 2009Hip fractures were almost twice as common in women as in men during the study period. The age-adjusted incidence of hip fracture increased between 1986 and 1995 (9% for women, 16.4% for men) but then decreased from 1995 to 2005 (24.5% for women, 19.2% for men).
Pilates promise prevention of neck and shoulder disorders
December 5th 2009A Pilates training program was effective in improving arm-trunk posture, strength, flexibility, and biomechanical patterns during a functional shoulder flexion task in a study conducted by Canadian researchers. Emery and colleagues1 assessed 19 study participants; 10 persons in the experimental group entered a Pilates training program. The evaluation consisted of trials of seated posture, abdominal strength, shoulder range of motion, and maximal shoulder flexion; the investigators recorded neck, shoulder, and trunk kinematics and the activity of 16 muscles.
Security Rules Put Providers on Notice
December 4th 2009HITECH says covered entities must be able to monitor and record every time that patient data is accessed, enabling the entity to comply with the new notification requirements should unauthorized access occur. Will the new rules end up restricting the efficient exchange of data that is crucial to providing high-quality healthcare?
The Cleveland Clinic Fails to Recoup its $100 Million Investment
December 3rd 2009For those interested in health information technology, there is now an excellent, new, powerful website about this topic called the Huffington Post Investigative Fund. In their most recent report, "Can Cleveland Clinic Be a Model for Digital Medicine?" they discuss how this hospital system has failed to recoup their $100 million investment to date.
Is the HITECH Act Unconstitutional? - Part 2
December 2nd 2009Some pundits have written that health insurance mandates are well beyond the constitutional authority of the federal government to tax, spend, and regulate interstate commerce. Others have picked up on these arguments and applied them to the EHR-implementation incentives under the HITECH Act as well. The bottom line is that these arguments fail, for four reasons.
Is the HITECH Act Unconstitutional? - Part 1
December 2nd 2009There has been much discussion about the HITECH Act and the effects it will have on healthcare in this country. The health IT industry and the federal government claim that EHR use will lead to a decrease in costs and an overall improvement in patient care. Skeptics like me disagree with these claims and feel that the push to adopt complex EHRs will be a bad deal for physicians.
Translating Education into Clinical Practice: The Role of Learning Communities
November 24th 2009Collaboration is important in healthcare, as evidenced by the growing number of "learning communities" and grassroots efforts that are bringing people and organizations together to work on the issue of eliminating disparities in health and healthcare.
Vioxx Adverse Events May Have Been Identified Years Earlier
November 23rd 2009As of December 2000, 21 of 30 randomized, placebo-controlled trials had been completed and the risk of a cardiovascular thromboembolic adverse event or death was greater among subjects assigned to the rofecoxib group, raising concerns from a safety standpoint.
The pundits are going to have their field day with this one. "The danger [with this Bill] is that as costs continue to rise and coverage becomes less comprehensive, people will conclude that we've tried health reform and it didn't work. But the real problem will be that we didn't really try it.
Managing obesity in patients who have knee osteoarthritis
November 5th 2009Obesity is a modifiable risk factor for knee osteoarthritis (OA). Weight loss may reduce the risk of knee OA, and increased levels of physical activity may result in improvements in disability-related outcomes. However, intensity of physical activity is not as important in weight loss as total energy expended.