ACR on Air

As the official podcast of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), ACR on Air seeks to have informative and engaging conversations rheumatology professionals want to hear – ranging in topic from trends in clinical practice, to issues affecting rheumatology professionals, and the changing landscape of the rheumatology field. Tune in twice a month for engaging interviews and commentary.

Practicing Pediatric Rheumatology in Southeast Asia 04/23/2024

Practicing Pediatric Rheumatology in Southeast Asia Join us this week as Jon meets with a truly influential woman in the medical field, Dr. Elizabeth Ang, being one of the first pediatric rheumatologists in the Southeast Asian region to receive pediatric rheumatology training and is the Co-Convenor of the Paediatric Rheumatology Special Interest Group of APLAR (Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology). Beyond this, and so that children with rheumatic disease in the region have the opportunity to be diagnosed and treated, Dr. Ang trains local doctors and shares her knowledge and experience with them in Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar. In this episode she and Dr. Hausmann discuss Singapore’s healthcare system, access to biologics, cultural barriers to treatment and much, much more. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/30798988

Managing Osteoporosis 04/09/2024

Managing Osteoporosis Bone health may not be first on the mind when discussing rheumatology, however, Dr. Marcy Bolster believes it plays a vital role in caring for ‘the whole patient’. As such, Dr. Bolster’s innovative contributions to the field of Osteoporosis cannot be overstated. She joins us today to discuss the role of the rheumatologist in helping to prevent or treat Osteoporosis, how often it’s under-recognized, plus the services she created to help identify, diagnose and treat the condition among patients. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/30591228

Immune Related Adverse Events of Checkpoint Inhibitors When a patient is diagnosed with cancer, treatments that force the immune system into overdrive are given in hopes that it will recognize the cancer and destroy it. Unfortunately, this can mean that various Immune Related Adverse Events (IRAEs) can occur. In rheumatology, our treatments are meant to tame an overactive immune system, creating a unique dilemma. Joining us today is Dr. Laura Cappelli, MD, MHS. Dr. Cappelli explains what these IRAEs really are, how they commonly occur, what risk factors exist in their development, the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to treatment and much, much more. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/30394408

State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium (SOTA) Preview 03/12/2024

State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium (SOTA) Preview April is just around the corner, and so is 2024’s State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium (SOTA)! This week, we welcome Dr. Sobia Hassan, Chair of the SOTA Planning Committee and Dr. Ibtissam Gad, Chair of the Fellows in Training subcommittee. We discuss the topics and speakers chosen for SOTA and how they were selected, some highlights including discussions on CAR T Cells, CPPD, and Check Point Inhibitors, what’s in store for our Fellows in Training and how you, our listeners, can get involved! If you’ve not yet registered, be sure to visit the ACR’s registration page for all the details you’ll need to plan your trip here: /episode/index/show/acronair/id/30274943

The Rheumatology Access Expansion Initiative 02/27/2024

The Rheumatology Access Expansion Initiative Join us this week for an insightful and encouraging discussion with Drs. Mandal and Grant, the founders of (RAE). RAE is a project designed to support the Navajo Nation, an underserved community with respect to rheumatic disease. Our guests explain how leveraging the established educational model, Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO), was used to remotely train PCPs among the Navajo in the diagnosis and evidence-based treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). /episode/index/show/acronair/id/29940418

Partnering with Your Occupational Therapist 02/13/2024

Partnering with Your Occupational Therapist Kicking off a new series in conjunction with ARP, we’re spending time with professionals in the field of rheumatology that can, and do, much for our patients. Today, our focus centers on The Occupational Therapist. But how much do we know of our colleagues and their contributions toward our patients? What does an occupational therapist do, with our referrals in hand? We caught up with the founder of Arthritis Life and host of the Arthritis Life Podcast, Cheryl Crow, to answer that question and much more. Cheryl explains to us what happens at an OT visit, what sorts of patients should see an OT, how to manage pain from exercise as well as sharing with us her favorite life hacks and her own personal journey from patient to advocate. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/29386918

Placebos: Their Effects and Why They Work 01/30/2024

Placebos: Their Effects and Why They Work If there was ever any evidence for the depth of complexity within our own brains, look no further than the placebos and their effects. Both a help and hinderance to the medical community, rheumatology clinicians and researchers can agree that when testing new treatments, the placebo effect is as powerful as it is disruptive. But what is it exactly? How does it work and for which symptoms? Are there symptoms to which this effect is ineffective? How can you diminish the effect? What is the “Nocebo Effect” and what ethics are involved when dealing with placebos? To answer these questions, we’ve invited Professor Ted Kaptchuk, director of the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts to be our guest today and tell us all about placebos, their effects and why they work. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/29186723

IgG4-Related Disease 01/16/2024

IgG4-Related Disease Join us this week for an in-depth discussion on IgG4-Related Disease with one of the premiere researchers in the field, Dr. John Stone. On this episode, Dr. Stone reviews the disease clinical presentation as well as its symptoms, how to make the diagnosis, treatment options, the role of IgG4 and what happens inside the body. Later, we discuss Dr. Stone’s research along with his personal journey in the field. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/29185233

The Clinical Year in Preview 12/19/2023

The Clinical Year in Preview As the year winds down and a new year is about to begin, looking back sometimes forces us to look ahead. Last month’s Convergence 2023 offered an opportunity to do just that: Look Ahead! We’ve invited the two speakers from the “The Clinical Year in Preview” session, Joan Bathon, MD and Jill Buyon, MD to discuss with us the latest abstracts that are expected to make the biggest waves in the coming year, as they relate to Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). We discuss a variety of abstracts that include the use of AI, steroid use, hydroxychloroquine dosing, preventing the development of RA in lupus, pregnancy in lupus dosing for methotrexate and much, much more. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/29098868

New ACR GIOP Guidelines with Dr. Mary Beth Humphrey 12/05/2023

New ACR GIOP Guidelines with Dr. Mary Beth Humphrey Dr. Hausmann interviews the first author of the , Mary Beth Humphrey, MD, PhD this week. We discuss what glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP) is and why it's important for people with rheumatic diseases, the need for an updated guideline, how adult and pediatric patients should be screened, risk categorization and much, much more /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28878333

ACoA: Recruiting, Retaining and Sustaining the Rheumatology Workforce 11/15/2023

ACoA: Recruiting, Retaining and Sustaining the Rheumatology Workforce We are LIVE from the San Diego Convention Center with Dr. Snow, Dr. Bulbin, and Dr. Phillips, fresh from their presentation at Convergence 2023 regarding the recruitment and retention of our rheumatology workforce! /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28548014

ACoA: The Daily Round Up - November 14 2023 11/15/2023

ACoA: The Daily Round Up - November 14 2023 Dr. Hausmann, MD interviews our Convergence attendees on the floor of the San Diego Convention Center! Here's your Daily Round Up for Sunday, November 13th 2023 /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28642723

ACoA: The Daily Round Up - November 13 2023 11/14/2023

ACoA: The Daily Round Up - November 13 2023 Dr. Hausmann, MD interviews our Convergence attendees on the floor of the San Diego Convention Center! Here's your Daily Round Up for Sunday, November 13th 2023 /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28631123

ACoA: Rethinking APS with the Guidance of New Classification Criteria 11/14/2023

ACoA: Rethinking APS with the Guidance of New Classification Criteria Award-winning researcher, Dr. Doruk Erkan joins us today with newly published ). Dr. Erkan joins us today with those criteria and why he believes there is sufficient evidence to “Rethink APS”. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28547966

ACoA: The Daily Round Up - November 12 2023 11/13/2023

ACoA: The Daily Round Up - November 12 2023 Dr. Hausmann, MD interviews our Convergence attendees on the floor of the San Diego Convention Center! Here's your Daily Round Up for Sunday, November 12th 2023 /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28610773

ACoA: Advocacy Year in Review 11/13/2023

ACoA: Advocacy Year in Review We welcome Dr. Christina Downey back onto our show, this time LIVE from Convergence 2023! You may remember Dr. Downey from , but today she comes to us in another capacity: in her continuing role as Chair of the ACR’s Government Affairs Committee! Listen in as she discusses what our collective voice in Washington has done for our patients in 2023, what are the current issues rheumatology faces “on The Hill” and lastly, what you can do to be heard! Learn more about the ACR's efforts in advocacy at: and get involved at: /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28547666

ACoA: ACR Guidelines: Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) 11/12/2023

ACoA: ACR Guidelines: Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) The weekend of Convergence 2023 continues! Dr. Sindhu Johnson presented the new 2023 ACR Interstitial Lung Disease Guidelines (which can be found ) and joins us today as its first author. Learn all about the recommendations, monitoring, how to approach treatment and when to change it as well as what gaps were noticed that inspired the new guidelines and the intent of the guidelines going forward. Enjoy, and we’ll see you tomorrow for another great episode at Convergence! /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28547342

ACoA: Thrombotic Microangiopathy 11/11/2023

ACoA: Thrombotic Microangiopathy Welcome to "ACR Convergence on Air" (ACoA)! Our daily coverage of ACR Convergence 2023! First up: what is thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) and what is its significance for rheumatology? How does TMA present in clinic and what are the challenges in diagnosing it? Chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Director of the Clinical Coagulation and the Platelet Antibody Laboratories at Duke University, Dr. Thomas Ortel, joins us on the show to explain this and more from his presentation here at Convergence 2023 /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28546562

Convergence 2023 Sneak Peek 11/07/2023

Convergence 2023 Sneak Peek ACR Convergence 2023 begins this Saturday! Dr. Hausmann gets on the mic for this short preview to unveil all of the exciting new things you'll hear, all week long, on our podcast! Be sure to wake up with Jon this Saturday morning, and every morning, during this year's Convergence! /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28504169

65. Importance of Patient Organizations 10/24/2023

65. Importance of Patient Organizations Your patients are seeing you regularly, and things are going well. What else could they possibly need? In this week’s episode, we discussed the support a patient organization can contribute between visits to your office and the type of support they provide patients, such as navigating the pitfalls of insurance coverage, managing the complexities of school, work, family, relationships with a chronic rheumatic disease, group support and much, much more. Our guest is Monique Gore-Massy, a distinguished and awarded global lupus advocate, diversity equity & inclusion champion, patient experience researcher, patient opinion leader consultant, motivational speaker, writer, strategist and, a patient with lupus. Her inspiring story and all the ways you can leverage these organizations for your patients are coming up in this next episode of “ACR on Air”. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28366562

64. ACR Convergence 2023 Preview 10/10/2023

64. ACR Convergence 2023 Preview ACR Convergence 2023 is very nearly here, and with it only being a few weeks away, it’s also time for our annual preview episode! What’s new this year? What returning favorites are coming back? What can we expect from the San Diego Convention Center? Jon talks to our AMPC Chair, Dr. Sharon Kolasinski once more to tease this year’s meeting, which in many ways builds on your feedback from last year as well. While listening, why not explore our or even ! Enjoy the show and we’ll see you in November! /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28247039

63. Revisiting Advocacy in Rheumatology 09/26/2023

63. Revisiting Advocacy in Rheumatology Most may find the topic of advocacy to be uninteresting or too big to tackle with such busy schedules. However, our guests this week, Dr. Belinda Birnbaum, MD and Lennie Shewmaker McDaniel, JD, truly breathe life into this matter while explaining the role the American College of Rheumatology has on Capitol Hill and how you (yes YOU) can play an important and rewarding role. We discuss what RheumPAC is, how the ACR identifies key issues affecting our patients, highlight past successes of the ACR’s advocacy group, plus cover important issues currently being presented to Congress such as “Transparency within Pharmacy Benefit Managers” and “Challenges of Step Therapy”. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/28110344

62. Joining a Practice 09/12/2023

62. Joining a Practice Congratulations, you’ve completed your rheumatology fellowship! Armed with the knowledge, skills and passion for treating complex rheumatic disease you’re set to go off into the world and help those who need your set of skills most. So... How do you do that? Our next guest, Dr. Sunil Abraham joins us to unpack and demystify this next challenge in your career – from his experience. We discuss the various ways of practicing rheumatology, from academic to clinical, as well as the organizational models of hospital-based groups, community practices, and private practices and the financial risks and benefits of partnership! /episode/index/show/acronair/id/27982260

61. Funding Through the Rheumatology Research Foundation 08/29/2023

61. Funding Through the Rheumatology Research Foundation No matter what stage of your career you’re in, the can help and support your research endeavors. This week, we discuss many of the grants The Foundation offers, not just to medical students and early career investigators, but also to medical educators, community rheumatologists and fellowship programs. We’ve invited Dr. Ted Mikuls, MD, MSPH, the chair of the Scientific Advisory Council on the Board of Directors for the Rheumatology Research Foundation and Eryn Marchiolo, the Vice President of Mission at the Rheumatology Research Foundation to discuss what The Foundation is, how it goes about executing its mission for rheumatology research, what scientific topics it’s most interested in, plus how to apply for grants, their grant selection process and how you can get involved. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/27852258

60. Ophthalmology for the Rheumatologist 08/15/2023

60. Ophthalmology for the Rheumatologist Our eyes: reflections of the soul, can say more than lips without need of translation and give us a glimpse into stories only a journey can record. Our next guest knows this all too well as he’s made a career of looking at rheumatic disease through a different lens. Quite literally. Join us this week for an illuminating discussion with Dr. James T. Rosenbaum, MD, rheumatologist and author of over 650 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Dr. Rosenbaum is credited as being both one of the world’s most impactful uveitis scientists for the years 2013 to 2023 and the only practicing rheumatologist to have headed a department of ophthalmology. Dr. Rosenbaum helps us put uveitis into focus this week as we discuss what it is, how he treats it, how to determine if those with it have other rheumatic conditions, and which patients with rheumatic disease should seek additional treatment with an ophthalmologist. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/27731631

59. Healthcare Disparities in Rheumatology 08/01/2023

59. Healthcare Disparities in Rheumatology In this week’s episode, we’ve invited Dr. Irene Blanco, MD, MS, to the show for a discussion regarding healthcare disparities. What are healthcare disparities? What causes them? Are there any disparities specific to rheumatology? We examine the consequences, explore the impact of patient outcomes, and the challenges faced by communities and some solutions you and your practice can engage in. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/27603081

58. Patient Participation in Research 07/18/2023

58. Patient Participation in Research Health research methodologist and clinical epidemiologist, Dr. Emily Sirotich, PhD is our guest this week who sheds light on a growing paradigm shift in medicine: patient participation in research. Once only considered to be the beneficiaries of research and care, Dr. Sirotich is here to discuss with us the evolving role patients and patient organizations have and how they are helping to lead the way in research. Through dispensing invaluable perspectives, experiences and insights to the conversation of care, the improvement of it and the advancement of the science involved, patient participation in research has proven to be a powerful resource in the investigation of treatment. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/27468855

57. Sarcoidosis 07/04/2023

57. Sarcoidosis Sarcoidosis: What is it? Why does it occur? Are there any potential environmental triggers? Our guest, Dr. Adam Morgenthau, sheds light on these and more, including making the diagnosis of sarcoidosis, the need for imaging or biopsy and how it will distinguish between organ involvement and organ damage. And, perhaps just as important, we discuss when to treat it, including the various medications that can be effective for organ system manifestations. Finally, we conclude with a discussion on the latest research into Sarcoidosis patients, and their families, living with this disease. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/27313551

56. How Environmental Factors Can Impact Patient Care 06/20/2023

56. How Environmental Factors Can Impact Patient Care This week, we invited Dr. Paul Dellaripa to discuss why patients and providers should be concerned regarding increases in heat, pollution, and allergens and how they may negatively impact people with rheumatic diseases. We discuss how environmental factors could contribute to the development of autoimmunity in people who were otherwise previously healthy and how these factors may also cause exacerbations of a patient's underlying rheumatic disease. Most importantly, we discuss what role we can assume at home, as professionals and as educators to our patients and medical trainees. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/27172455

55. Macrophage Activation Syndrome 06/06/2023

55. Macrophage Activation Syndrome This week we’ve invited Dr. Lauren Henderson of Boston Children’s Hospital to discuss what Macrophage Activation Syndrome (MAS) is, how to diagnose it and which medications are used to treat it. Dr. Henderson also explains her efforts to partner with healthcare professionals in other fields (who may use a different name for MAS) seeking to understand what treatments they use when confronted with MAS and to establish a formalized process in evaluating and treating these patients together. /episode/index/show/acronair/id/27030153

ACR on Air

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