At ACR23 I had a twitter-disagreement about steroid tapers from PEXIVAS with Mike Walsh, the lead author on the PEXIVAS trial. He kindly agreed to join me for a moderated discussion. Loved hearing his perspective and have to admit he pulled me closer to his practice... but not all the way there. Longer podcast than usual but I prefer to release audio uncut and this took as long as it needed! Hoping y'all enjoy.    Articles referenced during the podcast:  PEXIVAS: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1803537 PEXIVAS DAH Subset: https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.1164/rccm ..read more

Rheum4Debate is back! In this episode I moderated a debate between two pulmonologists about RA-ILD. As a reminder, Rheum4Debate is an Oxford-style debate show, where two debators disagree over a motion during 3 rounds of discussion. The motion for todays show was:  “Asymptomatic patients with rheumatoid arthritis and high risk features for interstitial lung disease should be screened using pulmonary function testing and a high resolution CT scan” Joshua defended the motion and Scott argued against it. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion and am sure you will as well!  ..read more

Informative podcast this week with Dr. Alexander Oldroyd, the first author of the recently published "International Guideline for Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathy-Associated Cancer Screening." The article itself appeared in Nature Reviews Rheumatology and provides what I think is a very useful framework for approaching this issue. Article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41584-023-01045-w ..read more

Quick methodology episode this week discussing the concept of "fragility" in randomized controlled trials of lupus. Really enjoyed discussing this paper and was grateful to have been a part of it. Get the text here: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/lupusscimed/11/1/e001068.full.pdf ..read more

Interesting topic and interesting paper this year, including discussion of observational biases, positive and negative controls, and interpreting data as it comes.    Paper: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2810259 ..read more

Important trial on the podcast this week! I take a deep dive into the recently published SAPHYR study, which evaluated the use of the IL6 inhibitor sarilumab for patients with PMR. A few aggravating quibbles but overall a very useful trial and an important step forward for patients with PMR.   Article: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2303452 ..read more

This week I took a twitter disagreement from the impersonal world of twitter to the podcast world of a back and forth conversation. Really enjoyed talking to Dr. Len Calabrese about monoclonal antibodies, FDA regulatory pathways, and life in general.  ..read more

Excited to share an editorial that I wrote along with Cody Bruggemeyer and Desh Nepal, two trainees with me at the Medical College of Wisconsin. We discussed what I believe to be a pervasive (but seldom discussed) issue in rheumatology RCTs: unblinding. I suspect many of our studies suffer from this. Have a listen!  ..read more

Happy to share the FIRST randomized trial in CPPD today. It's kind of a weird study but worth a quick discussion.  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665991323001650 ..read more

This week I dive into the health related quality of life measures that were reported in the ADVOCATE study. I found them overall somewhat convincing and they have affected my practice. Have a listen and be sure to follow along. Find my work at ebrheum.com  ..read more