American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting

November 14, 2019

Although patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are increasingly being used to understand treatment effectiveness, there is still a lot unknown about what measures patients find most important. Two abstracts presented at the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting evaluated PROs in rheumatology and how PRO measures can be used in clinical care.

November 14, 2019

Pain is common in patients with rheumatologic diseases, and 2 abstracts presented at the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting analyzed opioid use in these patients, examining patient features associated with chronic use and changing opioid use patterns in the wake of the opioid epidemic.

November 14, 2019

Exercise can be a potent therapy for patients with rheumatologic diseases and can result in improvements in inflammation, disease activity score, pain, stiffness, and fatigue. However, exercise needs to be modified for these patients to address the unique barriers they may have compared with the general population, said panelists during a session at the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting.

November 14, 2019

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) not only deal with functional impairment, but also pain, fatigue, and other symptoms driven by interleukin (IL)-6 levels. In a session at the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting, 2 speakers examined the role of IL-6 in RA and treatment using sarilumab (Kevzara) to target and block IL-6 signals.

November 13, 2019

New technologies that can monitor sleep, track itching patterns, or assist with pain are improving outcomes and quality of life for patients with rheumatologic conditions, according to panelists at the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting.

November 13, 2019

Monotherapy was a big topic of conversation at the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting, held November 8-13 in Atlanta, Georgia, and 2 abstracts highlight the efficacy of sarilumab as a monotherapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

November 13, 2019

Since there are no cures for knee osteoarthritis (OA), exercise and weight loss remain the best first-line therapies to decrease pain and improve function, said Stephen P. Messier, PhD, professor and director of the J.B. Snow Biomechanics Laboratory at Wake Forest University.

November 12, 2019

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis receiving sarilumab have lower odds of unacceptable pain and are able to reduce their dose of oral glucocorticoid; they also have lower costs per responder than most other treatments, according to a trio of abstracts presented at the American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Professionals 2019 Annual Meeting.

November 12, 2019

Utilization management tools, such as step therapy and prior authorization, are not only time consuming for patients, but they are a burden on providers and their practices due to the time and effort spent on the process, explained Jessica Farrell, PharmD, and Madelaine Feldman, MD, FACR, during their session at 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting, held November 8-13 in Atlanta, Georgia.

November 12, 2019

While biosimilars have brought down the cost of therapies, the savings are not quite as huge as providers may have been led to believe when biosimilars were initially under development, said Elaine Husni, MD, MPH, vice chair and director of the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Center in the Orthopedic and Rheumatologic Institute at the Cleveland Clinic.