Excerpt
The management of patients in rheumatology involves several classes of drugs, many of which have only recently been added to the physician’s armamentarium. Despite the proven effectiveness of these drugs, their safety profile remains largely unknown at the time of marketing, so that the balance between benefit and risk is often uncertain. Rheumatology has been at the center of concerns over drug safety, including the recent spotlight on the cardiovascular risks of cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors, numerous analgesics, and disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD). With today’s newest advances in information technology and the influx of new, costly drugs in rheumatology, it is…
