This week’s episode is another installment of our popular “Hot Topics” series, where we discuss “must read” studies recently published in one of ACR’s three peer-reviewed journals. Joining us is Dr. Vicki Shanmugam. Not just our guest today, but also the host of a new ACR podcast series, “ACR Journals on Air” scheduled to launch later this summer. Today, we’ll hear what we can expect from her new podcast, and we’ll talk about some of her favorite studies in the ACR’s journals right now. Enjoy! 

Listen in as Dr. Anne Bass discusses important guidelines for vaccinations in patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, including the impact of certain medications like rituximab and methotrexate, navigating insurance companies using the guidelines, and highlights of the vaccination recommendations. Learn about the complexities of vaccinating pediatric patients with rheumatic diseases, optimizing vaccination strategies, new conjugate vaccines, vaccine safety, and maximizing immune responses in individuals with compromised immune systems.

Today we’re talking about implicit bias with Dr Arin Reeves. What bias is, how it permeates our lives, how it can negatively impact our workforce, and its impact on clinical research and patient care. Most importantly, we discuss what we can do about our implicit biases to prevent them from causing damage. 

This week we welcome Dr. Alfred Kim to our show as we discuss B-Cell depleting therapies and how patients on these drugs may be more susceptible to COVID-19. During which, Dr. Kim takes us back to the beginning of the pandemic and how he and his patients initially managed the rituximab infusions, how and why people on this drug may be at increased risk of severe disease, the importance of vaccinations, and why they may not work for this patient population. Finally, we finish with Dr. Kim sharing with us important information on how to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 among people taking b-cell depleting therapies, now that there are new therapies for COVID-19 pre-exposure prophylaxis.  

Today’s episode is all about mental health for today’s healthcare professionals with our guest, Dr. Hanna Zembrzuska. She is a psychiatrist and rheumatologist and is a clinical assistant professor at The University of Iowa, holding appointments in the depts of internal medicine and psychiatry. We discuss everything from what burnout is, strategies to prevent/overcome it, the importance of having a sense of control within your medical practice and how to establish boundaries to coaching and support groups for physicians, as well as tips and tricks to maintain your mental health during busy clinic days. We then dive into how depression and anxiety can cause physical pain with rheumatic disease. 

Today, in this episode, we’ll discuss the new “2021 Guideline for the Management of Kawasaki Disease”, the mysterious triggers that cause KD, the use of therapies such as IVIG, steroids, infliximab, anakinra, and compare multisystem inflammatory disease in children, or MIS-C (a condition very similar to Kawasaki Disease that is triggered by SARS COV-2). Joining us today is Dr. Mark Gorelik, lead Author of the “2021 Guideline for the Management of Kawasaki Disease”. He’s an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, is a pediatric rheumatologist, an allergist and immunologist. His research focuses on vasculitis, including Kawasaki disease, and on immune dysregulation.   

In this episode, Dr. Kim Steinbarger, PT, MHS, DHSc, Asst. Professor at Husson University, and Talitha Black, an occupational therapist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), help us clarify some common misconceptions about exercise for people with rheumatic diseases. We’ll discuss tips and strategies to increase physical activity for people of all ages, explore who would benefit from physical or occupational therapy. We’ll discuss bracing, taping, and other strategies that people may use to reduce pain and improve function. 

Today we interview Dr. Mary-Ann Fitzcharles, a Rheumatologist in Montreal, Canada who specializes in pain management in rheumatic diseases and explore cannabis as a pain management option

Recently, ACR released two treatment guidelines for JIA. One updating pharmacologic management and another for non-pharmacologic therapies. We have lead author, Dr. Karen Onel, taking us through a deep dive on these, in an episode close to Jon's heart

Pregnancy and reproductive health have long been hot topics in the rheumatology community. Lisa Sammaritano, MD and Whitney White, PharmD, BCPS joined our host to discuss three research articles moving conversations forward on pregnancy and lactation in rheumatic disease patients.  Tough Choices: Exploring Medication Decision-Making During Pregnancy and Lactation Among Women With Inflammatory Arthritis. ACR Open Rheumatology.  Improving Knowledge of Lactation Compatibility of Antirheumatic Medications Among Providers Who Care for Patients With Rheumatic Disease. ACR Open Rheumatology.  Improved Pregnancy Outcome in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Who Followed an Ideal Clinical Pathway. ACR Arthritis Care & Research.