ACR Journals On Air

Dr. Isabelle Amigues, author of a manuscript on myocardial inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, discusses the link between inflammation and heart health in these patients. The podcast also includes reflections on a personal cancer diagnosis and the incorporation of holistic practices in rheumatology.

Dr. Alexandru-Emil Matei, a researcher in immunology, discusses his study on immune cell activation in scleroderma using biophysical phenotyping. They explore Young's Modulus and the RTFDC technique for analyzing cell mechanics. They also analyze PBMCs from patients with different diseases and discuss the correlation between biophysical properties of cells and disease activity scores. The podcast concludes with a conversation on balancing clinical practice and research in biomedical research.

Caring for older adults who suffer from rheumatic disease comes with it the need to manage multimorbidity, polypharmacy, and geriatric syndromes. Often, shifting priorities for those suffering with rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) is needed, sometimes leading to a prescribing cascade. The practice of ‘deprescribing’, an approach to optimize medication use to deliver a more ‘goal-concordant’ type of care was the focus of Dr. Una Makris and Dr. Jiha Lee’s latest research: “Optimizing Medication Use in Older Adults With Rheumatic Musculoskeletal Diseases: Deprescribing as an Approach When Less May Be More“ When caring for older adults with RMDs, it very well may be, that “Less is More”. 

In a study recently published in “ACR Open Rheumatology” titled: “Geographic Variation in Disease Burden and Mismatch in Care of Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis in the United States“, first author Dr. Sharon Dowell set out to understand some of the factors associated with regional variation of rheumatoid arthritis in the United States. Sharon Dowell, MD presents her study’s findings and conclusions. ACR’s RISE Team member, Tracy Johansson, MS, joins us as well to discuss how RISE attempts to close these gaps. Together, both of our guests help us to understand how geographic location contributes to a disproportionate level of care for those with RA and what we can do about it. 

Pulmonary hypertension (PH), being a serious complication of systemic sclerosis (SSc), develops late in the course of SSc and carries with it a poor prognosis. With the median survival of about 3 years, new evidence suggests that early diagnosis and treatment can significantly improve survival. Joining us this week is Christopher P Denton PhD FRCP, senior author of “Dynamic Prediction of Pulmonary Hypertension in Systemic Sclerosis Using Landmark Analysis,” published in Arthritis and Rheumatology. Dr. Denton’s latest study explores “the prediction of short-term risk for PH using serial pulmonary function tests (PFTs)” 

Dr. Joshua Baker, first author of a paper recently published in “Arthritis & Rheumatology”, “Associations Between Low Serum Urate, Body Composition, and Mortality“, is our guest today. Dr. Baker, recognizing the controversy in whether low serum urate or uric acid (UA) level contribute to adverse outcomes, set out to evaluate the relation between low serum UA levels and sarcopenia, to assess whether sarcopenia confounds associations between these low levels and mortality. 

Dr. David Leverenz, an educator and rheumatology enthusiast, created an online community of inquiry called Rheum Madness. The podcast explores the RheumMadness tournament where teams compete to determine the most important concept in Rheumatology. It discusses the application of educational theories and frameworks in the project, as well as participant engagement and the educational experience. Dr. Leverenz also shares their career journey and mentorship in rheumatology. Overall, it's an entertaining podcast for rheumatology enthusiasts!

Osteoarthritis is incredibly common, affecting more than 500 million people across the globe. It is a significant cause of pain and disability and carries high healthcare costs and societal burdens. Around the world, there are not enough rheumatology specialists to treat all the patients with OA, and in many countries, OA management is coordinated by primary care internists. However, despite good guidelines recommending first-line evidence-based treatments with muscle strengthening, physical activity, weight loss, and judicious medication management, there are many inconsistencies in OA care delivery. This week, we focus on the manuscript “Effectiveness of a New Service Delivery Model for Management of Knee Osteoarthritis in Primary Care: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial” and our guest is Dr. David Hunter, its first author. 

In this week’s episode, we’ll be looking at a paper recently published in “ACR Open Rheumatology” titled: “Machine Learning Applied to Patient-Reported Outcomes to Classify Physician-Derived Measures of Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity“. This study used machine learning tools to investigate whether longitudinal patient-reported outcome data can be a proxy for Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI), presenting interesting findings that may impact the practice of rheumatology.  Our guest this week is the paper’s first author, Dr. Jeffrey Curtis. Dr. Curtis is the Marguerite Jones Harbert – Gene V. Ball Endowed Professor in Rheumatology and Immunology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has many accolades to his name, including being a prior winner of the Henry Kunkel Young Investigator Award and being a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. 

This week, we welcome Dr. Ruth Fernandez Ruiz to our show, a physician-scientist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. Dr. Fernandez Ruiz’s award-winning work focuses on the interplay of genetic variation, type I interferons, and immune dysregulation in lupus. However, her latest study published in “Arthritis & Rheumatology” entitled: Supporting International Medical Graduates in Rheumatology: A Call to Action seeks to understand and draw attention to the challenges and barriers that prevent international medical graduates from coming to the U.S. and practicing medicine in the field of rheumatology.