DreamRCT: Role of Rituximab in Lupus Nephritis?

Paul SufkaEducation, Social Media

[This post can also be found on MedPageToday] The DreamRCT Initiative is a project by Dr. Jordan Weinstein (@drjjw) of UKidney and Dr. Joel Topf (@kidney_boy) of pbfluids.com and #NephJC. The project points out that nephrology has the fewest randomized controlled clinical trials of any subspecialty in medicine, and hopes to bring interest to areas where gaps in knowledge are … Read More

Online Roundup and Upcoming Projects

Paul SufkaAnnouncements, Conferences, Education, Hobbies, Med Tech, Rheumatology Podcast, Social Media, Uncategorized

“Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be … Read More

Twitter Journal Clubs

Paul SufkaConferences, Education, Social Media

Thank you for asking me to present at the 2015 Metro Minnesota Council on Graduate Medical Education (MMCGME) Coordinator Conference. Conference hashtag: #2015GMEConf Unfortunately, I’m not able to give this presentation in person, but given the topic I’ve been asked to discuss, it seems appropriate to be done virtually. If anyone has questions that relate to this presentation, I would … Read More

Announcing the Successful Launch of #RheumJC: Rheumatology Journal Club on Twitter

Paul SufkaAnnouncements, Education

Although still in it’s infancy, I’m happy to announce the successful launch of a new Rheumatology Journal Club on Twitter: #RheumJC. We just completed the our first online discussion of Tacrolimus versus mycophenolate mofetil for induction therapy of lupus nephritis and had a great turnout, with 519 tweets on the day of the journal club (summary available here). We thank … Read More

Rheumatology joining December 16th #NephJC discussion on “Rituximab versus Azathioprine for Maintenance in ANCA-Associated Vasculitis”

Paul SufkaEducation, Social Media

Image: Rituximab crystal structure. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. I’m thrilled to announce that the online rheumatology community has been asked to join the next #NephJC, which will be held Tuesday, December 16 from 9-10 PM EST / 8-9 PM CST. We’ll be discussing the recent NEJM article Rituximab versus Azathioprine for Maintenance in ANCA-Associated Vasculitis (PMID: 25372085) For my rheumatology colleagues … Read More

How to Blog – #ACR14 Social Media Bootcamp

Paul SufkaConferences, Education, Med Tech, Medical Practice, Social Media

“When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don’t put … Read More

Social Media and the Tweetups at #ACR13

Paul SufkaConferences, Education, Rheumatology Podcast, Social Media

I was fortunate again this year to attend my sixth American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting (ACR) in San Diego. This year was much different than every other because of the (self-imposed) stress of organizing the #ACR13 tweetups, relating to my goal of trying to spend time meeting with people at medical conferences. I want to thank everyone who attended. Every year the tweetups … Read More

Lifelong Learning and Teaching in Medicine

Paul SufkaEducation

 “It gave a tremendous level of self-confidence, that through exploration and learning one could understand seemingly very complex things in one’s environment.” – Steve Jobs In medicine, we knowingly commit ourselves to lifelong learning. Very early in our medical education, most of us are told that some portion of what we are taught will be found to be incorrect (or … Read More

An Update on Gout Management

Paul SufkaEducation, Rheumatology Podcast

Below is a reprint of an article I wrote for Just Joints, an online newsletter for health professionals distributed by the Arthritis Foundation Upper Midwest Region. This article will be posted in the archives eventually, but be sure to check out the other articles in this series.  Also, be sure to check out Episode 2 of The Rheumatology Podcast, where we discuss an … Read More

Announcing – The Rheumatology Podcast

Paul SufkaEducation, Med Tech, Rheumatology Podcast

I’m proud to announce, that along with co-hosts Dr. Michael Laccheo and Dr. Suleman Bhana, that the inaugural episode of The Rheumatology Podcast will be released early this next week. In the first episode, we discuss a bit about who each of us are, electronic medical records, misunderstandings about rheumatology and rheumatologists, social media use in medicine, a few of our takeaways from … Read More