RHEUMATOLOGY In 2020, the Division of Rheumatology continued to experience growth by substantially increasing the rheumatology presence in South Hadley, MA, where we now see 10 times the number of patients we did earlier this year. We continue to staff satellite specialty care centers in six locations throughout Connecticut: Danbury, Shelton, Stamford, Farmington, Glastonbury, and Hartford. The division is staffed by four board-certified/boardeligible pediatric rheumatologists. Although Lawrence Zemel, MD, has now retired, he continues seeing patients for clinical care one day per month. We have a new psychologist on our team. Vanessa Laurent, PhD, has seamlessly replaced our former psychologist and her expertise enables us to continue to address the critical biopsychosocial factors affecting our patients. We have two nurses on our team who provide outstanding clinical care and participate in research through the Rheumatology Nursing Society. The division remains clinically busy. We had 3,050 outpatient visits this year. Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the decrease in the number of outpatients seen in March and early April, our division quickly pivoted to telemedicine. We were able to quickly resume full volumes of outpatient visits using this safe and effective method of patient care. Division chief Barbara Edelheit, MD, is now part of a team at Connecticut Children’s led by Sharon Smith, MD, that is looking at developing a telemedicine curriculum. In addition to outpatient visits, we also cared for 87 complex inpatients including many with multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), the new post-inflammatory syndrome causing significant illness in children following exposure to Covid-19. Heather Tory, MD, MPH, CPPS, played a critical role as the Rheumatology lead in the pathway development for the care of these critically ill children. Each of the division’s physicians continues with specific areas of expertise and focus, forming the basis of a robust team. PEDIATRICS
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