Wednesday | March 31, 2021
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The American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR’s) newly released COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Guidance Summary recommends the vaccination of rheumatology patients with musculoskeletal, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, citing potential clinical issues that could put them at high risk for poor COVID-19 outcomes.
“Although there is limited data from large population-based studies, it appears that patients with autoimmune and inflammatory conditions are at a higher risk for developing hospitalized COVID-19 compared to the general population and have worse outcomes associated with infection,” said Jeffrey Curtis, MD, the chair of the ACR COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Guidance Task Force in a press statement. “Based on this concern, the benefit of COVID-19 vaccination outweighs any small, possible risks for new autoimmune reactions or disease flare after vaccination.”
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Medical boards need substantial reform, report says
Many state medical boards “are doing a dangerously lax job” protecting the public from incompetent physicians, according to a report from Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy group.
The report -- co-authored by Sidney Wolfe, MD, and Robert E. Oshel, PhD, of Public Citizen's Health Research Group -- ranked states by their rate of serious disciplinary actions, as reported by the federal National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), per 1,000 licensed physicians in each state from 2017 to 2019.
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CMS instructed Medicare administrative contractors to hold all claims for services provided on or after April 1, when Medicare sequester cuts are currently scheduled to go back into effect, according to AHA.
They will automatically reprocess claims paid with the reduction applied if necessary, as the House is expected to take up the bill passed in the Senate when it returns from break April 13.
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New study documents poor minority representation among physicians and nine other job types
Black, Hispanic, and Native Americans are underrepresented in major health professions, researchers found, and they urged that steps be taken to improve the situation.
"Underrepresented minorities are more likely to practice in underserved areas and serve underserved populations," said Edward Salsberg, MPA, a senior research scientist at the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "Some good literature shows that having a more diverse class of cohorts of health profession students increases the cultural sensitivity and awareness of all the students, so there's a benefit to the education process as well -- and then just the value of increasing access to well-paying, generally rewarding careers in terms of equity for the population in general. So we think there are benefits to the community at large."
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Pain Medicine Case Reports (PMCR) and Editor-in-Chief Alaa Abd-Elsayed, MD, PhD would like to invite you to submit case reports and case series to the PMCR journal. Your article will be published free of charge.
Open access journals are freely available online for immediate worldwide open access to the full text of published articles. There is no subscription fee for open access journals. Open access journals are no different from traditional subscription-based journals: they undergo the same peer-review and quality control as any other scholarly journal.
Interested in becoming a member of the PMCR Editorial Board?
Editorial board members are asked to review 2-6 manuscripts per year. Please submit your most up-to-date CV to sgold@asipp.org for consideration.
For more information or to submit your articles, click here.
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Sai P. Alla, MD, Hugh McDermott, MD, and Trusharth A. Patel, MD
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Spinal cord stimulation can be an effective treatment modality in patients suffering from postherpetic neuralgia who have failed first-line pharmacotherapy and continue to struggle from debilitating pain. Appropriate patient selection and having a wide array of stimulation waveforms can enhance the success of spinal cord stimulator trials.
CASE REPORT: In this article, we present a case report of a patient suffering from refractory thoracic postherpetic neuralgia who underwent a successful high-frequency 10-kHz spinal cord stimulator trial. Lead tips were successfully placed at the midline and left paramedial side of the top of T1 vertebral bodies at the source of the pain. The patient was followed up in our clinic 7 days post procedure. At the time of follow-up, our patient reported an 85% to 90% reduction in his pain symptom scores and a significant improvement in his quality of life.
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Our FIRST IN-PERSON
Meeting since COVID Shutdowns
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The 23rd annual meeting will be educational (providing much-needed CME credits), exciting, and will offer the long-awaited ability to leave our homes and attend meetings in a safe and responsible manner.
ASIPP is working to make the program highly relevant for our changing healthcare system and environment. We will also bring you cutting-edge lectures on exciting new technology, world-renowned speakers, and much, much more.
Topics will include COVID-19, economics, burnout, social media, metabolic health, regulatory issues, scientific advances in IPM, and much more!
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Abstract
Background: Interventional spine procedures, such as discography, epidural steroid injections (ESIs), facet joint procedures, and intradiscal therapies, are commonly used to treat pain and improve function in patients with spine conditions. Although infections are known to occur following these procedures, there is a lack of comprehensive studies on this topic in recent years.
Objectives: To assess and characterize infections following interventional spine procedures.
Methods: Studies that were published from January 2010 to January 2020 and provided information on infections or infection rates following discography, ESIs, facet joint procedures, and intradiscal therapies were included. PubMed (Medline), EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched, according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Infection data were extracted from included studies, and infection rates were calculated for each procedure type. Case reports and infection-only articles were not included in infection rate calculations.
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Abstract
Background: Percutaneous nerve electrical stimulation is a novel treatment modality for the management of acute and chronic myofascial pain syndrome.
Objectives: To compare the effectiveness of dry needling combined with percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation of low frequency versus high frequency, in patients with chronic myofascial neck pain.
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If you have a question, please email Savannah Gold at sgold@asipp.org or call 270.554.9412, ext 4219.
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- Selected manuscripts will be presented in an Electronic Poster Presentation
- Top 25 will be published in the Pain Physician journal.
- Top 10 will be selected for the Abstract Presentation at the Annual Meeting
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Company CEOs stress the vaccine provides a path back to "everyday school"
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated 100% efficacy against symptomatic disease in adolescents as young as age 12, the companies said Wednesday.
In the 2,260-person trial, 18 cases of COVID-19 were observed in the placebo group versus none in the vaccine group, according to topline results from the phase III trial in adolescents ages 12-15.
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Latest setback for troubled osteoarthritis biologic
An FDA advisory panel voted overwhelmingly -- 19-1 -- that a proposed Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program would not ensure a favorable benefit-risk balance for tanezumab, a nerve growth factor inhibitor that drugmaker Pfizer hopes to market for osteoarthritis (OA) pain.
It's yet another setback in a long and rocky road for the agent, for which Pfizer has struggled to show definitely that it is both safe and effective, with the former proving most problematic.
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Since this malpractice insurance program officially launched in November 2018, ASIPP has signed up hundreds of providers with an average savings of 30%. This is professional liability insurance tailored to our specialty and will stand up for us and defend our practices.
Norcal Mutual is 'A' Rated by AM best and is license in all 50 states. To read a few important points to keep in mind about the program, including discounts, administrative defense, cyber coverage, aggressive claims handling, and complimentary award-winning risk management CME activities, click here.
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ASIPP® is now offering our members the benefit of a unique revenue cycle management/ billing service. We have received a tremendous amount of interest in the ASIPP® billing and coding program.
Click here to learn more about the negotiated rate for practices and more!
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ASIPP® has formed a partnership with Henry Schein and PedsPal, a national GPO that has a successful history of negotiating better prices on medical supplies and creating value-added services for the independent physician. Working with MedAssets, PedsPal provides excellent pricing on products like contrast media that alleviate some of the financial pressures you experience today.
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up-to-date news related to you, your practice, and your patients!
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