Our team of Patient Representatives and staff hit the ground running Monday to take in a range of sessions at the2017 Annual Meeting of the ACR/AHRP(Annual Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals).
Donna Dernier sat in on a session titled “Moving Toward Better Osteoarthritis Management.” In it, Kelli Allen, a research professor of medicine from the Thurston Arthritis Research Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, said there is plenty of good evidence that certain behavioral therapies can work to better manage osteoarthritis (OA), but the message is getting lost in translation to the patient. Dernier reports, “The good news is there are agreed-upon strategies that work well toreduce painand increase mobility. These includeweight loss,better sleep patterns, judicious use of pain meds, increased exercise. Unfortunately, compliance isn’t always as high as doctors would like. Causes for this could be: non-shared decision making, a patient’s lack of confidence in the recommendation, or perhaps difficulty in actually getting to [physical therapy] sessions.”
Carol Oatis, a physical therapist and professor at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania, also attended the lecture.有人问她病人的底线是什么。
Dernier also attended a session on telehealth and how it can expand access to care for many patients. “The main point is that there are fewer and fewer doctors, including rheumatologists, to serve a large (and growing) aging population. The goal of telehealth is to provide the right medical care at the right time for the right patient pathology.… There are many administrative issues in practicing medicine across state lines, but the government recognizes that this is an upcoming and necessary technology.”
一个关于“关节炎的身体活动和社会心理方面”的会议引起了Dernier和Stacy Courtnay的注意。德尼尔写道:“好消息是，研究表明[运动]对OA或[类风湿性关节炎]RA没有不良影响。建议每周适度运动150分钟。当人们不那么活跃时，他们更容易抑郁。因此，体育活动干预可以降低抑郁症。事实证明，体育活动对风湿病的各个方面都有积极的影响:功能、疼痛、睡眠等。身体活动会推迟‘残疾’的发生，残疾的定义是失去有价值的生活活动。”
Courtnay reports, “Interesting session on exercise and psychosocial aspects in rheumatic patients by Patricia Katz [professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco]. Feeling validated by information presented. Patients with RA are more sensitive than general population to sleep disturbances, which explains why I need naps when I don’t get enough sleep or have a bad night’s sleep. Most people can push through, but it’s much harder for RA patients.”
Courtnay concludes, “Prevalent theme throughout all sessions is ‘Sit less, move more!’”
另一个值得注意的环节是梅奥诊所心脏病专家Rekha Mankad的演讲，题为“触及问题的核心”。在报告中，她提醒风湿病学界，患有自身免疫性炎症性风湿性疾病(包括风湿性关节炎、红斑狼疮、银屑病关节炎和强直性脊柱炎)的人患各种心血管疾病的风险更高，从房颤、动脉粥样硬化到心脏病发作和中风。虽然传统的风险因素(如高血压和糖尿病)发挥了作用，但这种风险会因为持续的、低水平的炎症而增加——但究竟增加了多少还没有达成一致。
“Cannabis in Society and Medical Practice” explored the impact on society and the individual of the medicinal and recreational legalization of marijuana. Rosalie Pacula, a senior economist at the RAND Corporation, told the audience that almost nothing is known about marijuana’s health impact because the landscape is changing so rapidly and laws vary from state to state (even county to county in some places) and often evolve within states. Daniele Piomelli, MD, professor of anatomy and neurobiology, pharmacology and biological chemistry at University of California, Irvine, explained exactly how cannabis works in the brain and what the scientific literature shows cannabis helps with. Good news: there is substantial evidence of its effectiveness for chronic pain.
Author: Andrea Kane for the Arthritis Foundation
Related Resources:
- Patients Weight in on ACR Sessions
- Learn about the ACR Patient Representative Program
- Your Patient, Our Focus: Arthritis Foundation at ACR
- Highlighting a Thought Leader: Bing Chang