Rheumatology Republic

With COVID-19 cases climbing in Victoria, some rheumatologists are being called up to help with frontline care of sick patients. Today, we're interviewing Dr Mueed Mian, a rheumatologist at Austin Health and Northern Health, who’s been working with patients who have coronavirus. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The absence of any data on the risk that SARS-Cov 2 poses to patients with rheumatic disease has been unsettling for the entire rheumatology community. It feels like we’re all fumbling around in the dark... This week, I’m joined by Dr David Liew, the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance's regional lead for Australia. I’m hoping he has some updates for us on how this pandemic is panning out for pa...

At the ACR annual meeting in Atlanta, Rheumatology Republic reporter Penny Durham caught up with Patricia Davidson and Karin Tse from the Lupus Foundation of America, which is trialling two self-management programs for lupus patients. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Associate Professor Mark Arnold works as a rheumatologist in Dubbo and Orange in NSW. There's a significant need for rheumatologists in the bush, but it comes with its own unique challenges. There are vast distances to travel and wildlife to avoid. You learn not to schedule patient appointments around peak times for emu and kangaroo strikes, and to watch out for blocks of concrete on the road, oth...

Rheumatologists don’t always ask their female patients this question, but, according to US rheumatologist Dr Bonnie Bermas from UT Southwestern in Dallas, it’s really quite important. The ‘One Key Question’ is: “Are you planning on becoming pregnant in the next year?” The conversations about contraception and pregnancy planning are often out of the “comfort zone” of rheumatologists, says Dr Bermas...

Dr David Liew, a rheumatologist at Austin Hospital in Victoria, is at ‘Disneyland’ for rheumatologists – the annual meeting for ACR in Atlanta, Georgia. “The kind of conversations that you have here are the kind of conversations that are hard to have elsewhere,” he tells Rheumatology Republic reporter Penny Durham. Australia is “leading the field or certainly up there” in terms of using PET CT in...

Doctors' silence on the topic of sex is troubling for patients with arthritis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dutch research presented at EULAR has shown that low-dose prednisolone improves symptoms in patients with painful hand osteoarthritis. Here's presenting author Dr Féline Kroon, a researcher at Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands, explaining the implications of her team's research. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Patients with rheumatic conditions often report being unable to get out of bed, having countless nights of restless sleep and being weighed down by relentless exhaustion. Rheumatology Republic caught up with Dr James Galloway, an epidemiologist and rheumatologist at King’s College London in the UK, at EULAR in Madrid to chat about why fatigue is an often-ignored burden of rheumatic disease. Hosted...

What has stroke got to do with diabetes? Are asthma and eczema related? How come a smoking cessation drug seems to work for obesity treatment? Presenting at EULAR in Madrid on the topic ‘The end of medicine as we know it’, Professor Harald Schmidt explained how big data is breaking down traditional ideas about disease. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The study results we've all been waiting for – part 2 of the GiACTA trial – have been announced at EULAR, but there were still a few “unanswered questions”, an Australian rheumatologist says. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Luke Williamson, a rheumatology registrar from Canberra, sums up his EULAR experience in three words: exciting, extensive and inspirational. Dr Williamson has been to a few international conferences, but EULAR is “like nothing else I've been to before”, he tells Rheumatology Republic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What makes EULAR different? And why are rheumatologists so infatuated with Twitter? Rheumatology Republic editor Dr Irwin Lim shares a few thoughts from EULAR in Madrid. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever wondered whether it’s worth repeating an ANA test? Australian data presented at EULAR in Madrid has finally provided an answer to this clinical conundrum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What will the next decade of RA treatment bring? Iain McInnes, a professor of experimental medicine at the University of Glasgow, has some answers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's difficult to know when to start tapering off high-dose steroids for patients with takayasu arteritis, but novel biomarkers discovered in India could help guide the decision. Professor Debashish Danda, a rheumatologist at Christian Medical College Vellore in India, spoke about his research with Rheumatology Republic reporter Felicity Nelson at APLAR-ARA 2019 in Brisbane. Hosted on Acast. See a...

Rheumatologist Dr Helen Benham has been running a "hub and spoke" telehealth model of care for 200 patients annually at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. The telehealth patients still have to see their rheumatologists once a year face-to-face, and Dr Benham "universally get groans" from patients at that time of the year. "It really demonstrates, as the research did, that patients generally...

Victorian rheumatologist Peter Ryan has been offering telehealth for years using "simple Skype". "Teleheath is something I can't live without," he says. "I started telehealth 16 years ago with the help of Medicare and various medical indemnity societies. Now, I could not practice without it. I could not deliver what I do to country patients in a way that they've come to love." Speaking with Rheuma...

"If people learn why they hurt, they hurt less." Rheumatology Republic reporter Felicity Nelson caught up with Professor Lorimer Moseley at APLAR in Brisbane this week to chat about how educating patients about pain science can actually reduce their pain levels in the long term. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.