The challenges of medication adherence in children are as diverse as the populations we serve. Among other things, adherence in children can be affected by parental beliefs, medication taste, smells or side effects, pain associated with route of administration, peer...
When I started in rheumatology practice 11 years ago, we had few options at our disposal to treat patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The initial batch of anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) inhibitors had arrived, but they were the only “big guns” out there....
As an adult rheumatology nurse with nearly 15 years in the field, I have a certain comfort level when educating patients who have been newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). I get a lot of the same questions over and over—“Will I be deformed?” or “Will I end...
HL was 19 years old when she was transferred from a pediatric rheumatology practice into our adult practice. Her medical and social history was messy. In the foster care system since the age of 12 years old, HL had been diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus...
TK was an 8-year-old female who presented to our pediatric rheumatology clinic about a year ago with a positive antinuclear antibody (ANA) test result (1:320), general fatigue, and a recent preliminary diagnosis of pediatric systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) that was...