Pilot Study: Development and Evaluation of Validity Evidence of a Low-Cost, Low-Fidelity Hand Model to Teach Clinical Assessment of Small Joint Swelling in Inflammatory Arthritis.

Objective: To create an affordable, easily reproducible, low-fidelity hand model and present a validity argument for its use to support residents' learning to identify inflammatory arthritis.

Methods: We designed a hand model to simulate small joint swelling and evaluated evidence to support its use using Messick's Framework between April 2023 and April 2024. Rheumatologists nationwide rated our model (content validity).

Development, Usability, and Validity Evidence of a Rheumatology Telehealth Feedback Form.

Objective: Rheumatology telehealth is widespread, making it essential that rheumatology fellows-in-training (FITs) achieve competence delivering telehealth care before entering the workforce. Feedback enhances telehealth skill development. This study develops a Rheumatology Telehealth Feedback Form (RTFF) that incorporates existing data and expertise as well as gathers validity evidence supporting its use.

Frontline assessors' opinions about grading committees in a medicine clerkship.

Background: Collective decision-making by grading committees has been proposed as a strategy to improve the fairness and consistency of grading and summative assessment compared to individual evaluations. In the 2020-2021 academic year, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (WUSM) instituted grading committees in the assessment of third-year medical students on core clerkships, including the Internal Medicine clerkship.

Revisiting Race, Ethnicity, and Disparities in Rheumatology Educational Materials: An Update Since 2020.

Objective: In 2020, one study by Strait and colleagues raised awareness that the clinical images in rheumatology educational materials underrepresent people with skin of color (P-SOC). Since then, publishers of rheumatology educational materials have focused on addressing this shortcoming. This study investigates the change in representation of P-SOC following the review of Strait et al.

Shared Decision-Making During Virtual Care Regarding Rheumatologic and Chronic Conditions: Qualitative Study of Benefits, Pitfalls, and Optimization.

Objective: Virtual care (VC) is an accepted modality of care delivery, and shared decision-making (SDM) benefits patients with rheumatologic and chronic conditions (RCCs). Unfortunately, research suggests reduced quality of SDM during VC. This study explores the benefits and shortcomings of SDM regarding RCCs during VC with suggestions for optimally using VC during SDM.

Power of Representation in Educational Materials: Teaching Cutaneous Lupus Across Skin Tones in an Interactive Module.

Objective: Clinicians report low confidence assessing cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE) lesions, especially for patients who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) who are historically excluded from educational materials. To address this, we created an online, interactive module teaching an approach to assessing CLE across skin tones and measured its impact on medical knowledge and confidence.

Methods: Our team created a module with case-based methods to introduce an approach to CLE, common mimicking rashes, and tips for photographing cutaneous lesions in BIPOC.

Incorporating Telemedicine in Rheumatology Fellowship Training Programs: Needs Assessment, Curricular Intervention, and Evaluation.

Objective: To increase the confidence of rheumatology fellows in training (FITs) in delivering virtual care (VC) and prepare them for independent practice, we developed educational materials addressing gaps in their skills.

Methods: We identified gaps in telemedicine skills based on FIT performance in a virtual rheumatology objective structured clinical examination (vROSCE) station on VC delivery using video teleconference technology and survey (survey 1) responses. We created educational materials including videos of "mediocre" and "excellent" VC examples, discussion/reflection questions, and a document summarizing key practices.

Workshop, Assessment, and Validity Evidence for Tools Measuring Performance of Knee and Shoulder Arthrocentesis.

Introduction: Musculoskeletal concerns are common, yet residents at our institution lacked arthrocentesis training. We created a workshop to teach residents knee and shoulder arthrocentesis, developed simulated assessment scenarios (SASs) with tools to measure procedural proficiency, and collected validity evidence.

Methods: A multidisciplinary group conducted a modified Delphi to define content for the workshop, SASs, and assessment tools.

Rethinking the Difficult Patient: Formative Qualitative Study Using Participatory Theater to Improve Physician-Patient Communication in Rheumatology.

Background: Effective physician-patient communication is crucial for positive health outcomes for patients with chronic diseases. However, current methods of physician education in communication are often insufficient to help physicians understand how patients' actions are influenced by the contexts within which they live. An arts-based participatory theater approach can provide the necessary health equity framing to address this deficiency.

Addressing Competency in Rheumatology Telehealth Care Delivery.

Objective: Telehealth is an essential facet of care delivery for patients with rheumatic diseases. The Association of American Medical College's (AAMC) telehealth competencies (TCs) define the skills required for delivering general telehealth care across the range of clinician experience. In this study, the American College of Rheumatology's (ACR) TCs working group aimed to adapt the AAMC TCs to rheumatology, outlining the skills acquisition unique to rheumatology with a focus on knowledge, skills, and behaviors expected of recent rheumatology fellowship graduates.

Update on ophthalmic manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus: pathogenesis and precision medicine.

Purpose Of Review: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with manifestations in multiple organs including the eyes. Several ocular manifestations like dry eye, retinopathy, and choroidopathy have been linked with specific systemic manifestations like lupus nephritis or CNS disease. Furthermore, the presence of ocular manifesattions can correlated with the severity of SLE.

Health care practitioners' confidence assessing lupus-related rashes in patients of color.

Patients with skin of color (P-SOC) are disproportionately burdened by lupus and often have worse disease outcomes than white patients. This is partly because educational materials underrepresent P-SOC, thereby promoting unconscious bias and clinical deficiencies among practitioners. We sought to measure providers' confidence in diagnosing the cutaneous manifestations of lupus (i.

Applying Educational Theory to Optimize Trainee Education in the Ambulatory Virtual Care Environment.

Virtual care (VC) encounters have become an essential part of outpatient clinical care. The theory of situated learning and legitimate peripheral participation posits that medical trainees learn best when they participate in authentic patient care experiences and engage effectively with their preceptors, members of the health care team, and the clinical learning environment. This theory can provide a framework from which to approach teaching in the VC setting, whereby preceptors may capitalize on the unique learning and assessment opportunities provided during VC encounters and optimize educational experiences for trainees as well as clinical outcomes for patients.

Representation of Skin Colors in Images of Patients With Lupus.

Objective: Lupus presents earlier and more severely among patients with skin of color (SOC), and this population experiences worse outcomes. Providers rely on medical education materials when developing skills to care for patients, yet these resources historically underrepresent patients with SOC and marginalize vulnerable populations. In this study, we investigated if this publication bias extends to images depicting patients with lupus.

Unnecessary complexity of home medication regimens among seniors.

Objective: To determine whether seniors consolidate their home medications or if there is evidence of unnecessary regimen complexity.

Methods: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 200 community-dwelling seniors >70 years in their homes. Subjects demonstrated how they took their medications in a typical day and the number of times a day patients would take medications was calculated.

Hiring and screening practices of agencies supplying paid caregivers to older adults.

Objectives: To assess what screening practices agencies use in hiring caregivers and how caregiver competency is measured before assigning responsibilities in caring for older adults.

Design: One-to-one phone interviews in which interviewers posed as prospective clients seeking a caregiver for an older adult relative.

Setting: Cross-sectional cohort of agencies supplying paid caregivers to older adults in Illinois, California, Florida, Colorado, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Indiana.