Healio Rheumatology and the lives of rheumatologists
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
In our January issue, I wrote an editorial that essentially called for more emphasis on humanities in our professional and personal world. I commented on how two of our leading researchers wrote with intelligence and passion about an issue of medical professionalism and the joy they told me it brought to them.
Since then, I have received a number of thoughtful correspondences that have provided further encouragement for Healio Rheumatology to move in this direction. I discussed this with our Editorial Peer Perspective Board at ACR 2020 (albeit virtually) and there was real enthusiasm.
We discussed how our field, while moving at breakneck speed in its science, is still thankfully a human endeavor. At times, it’s very hard and the banalities of practice can be incredibly frustrating, but it is also a warm profession that on a given day can still provide some magic to both patient and provider. We at Healio Rheumatology have a few ideas and initiatives to share and we will appreciate your critiques as they evolve.
Source: Adobe Stock.
First and starting this issue, I want to introduce you to Chuck Radis, DO, a fine rheumatologist practicing on Peaks Island, off the coast of Maine. He also happens to be both a gifted writer and good friend. I was introduced to Chuck’s writing when he published a series of essays in The Rheumatologist. I welcome you to visit Chuck’s website if you haven’t read them.
Chuck is the real deal in terms of an island doctor who has to literally go by boat to do just about everything. He writes about real patients as people and their rheumatic diseases in a style that I found captivating and deeply reflective with an inner voice that every rheumatology provider will recognize in those times when we are truly puzzled, fearful, concerned or just outright frustrated.
I was truly impressed and immediately reached out to him to introduce myself and invite him to the Cleveland Clinic and the Cleveland Society of Rheumatology to do some readings. He was a huge hit and we have kept in touch ever since.
He now has his first book forthcoming, Go by Boat, which is described as a “uniquely American true tale about an island physician off the coast of Maine.” I have read and reviewed it and have even contributed comments to his publisher; I guarantee you will love it. Additionally, I have convinced Chuck to contribute some of his essays periodically to Healio Rheumatology and in this issue you will read his first. Read more here. Let us know what you think of his unique insight.
Inspired by Chuck’s remarkable journey to rheumatology, we are “borrowing a page” from another Healio publication, Infectious Disease News, namely the format of their column “Hooked on ID” which I read regularly (with my ID hat on). In our own column, a sundry of rheumatology providers, both rheumatologists and advanced practitioners, will share their reflections on why they wound up doing what they do and what they now think about it. We are all excited to start this, so stay tuned.
Just in case you were worried, we will have no less emphasis on the science of rheumatology but are merely making sure that we pause to exhale and reflect on our lives as well. Give me your take at calabrl@ccf.org or rheumatology@healio.com.
- For more information:
- Leonard H. Calabrese, DO, is the Chief Medical Editor, Healio Rheumatology, and Professor of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, and RJ Fasenmyer Chair of Clinical Immunology at the Cleveland Clinic.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts