Program Information

The Advanced Rheumatology Course (ARC) is a comprehensive, 19-module educational series geared toward members of the rheumatology interprofessional team and other professionals needing a deeper dive into rheumatology. Use the course to learn how to assess and manage patients with rheumatic disease, develop strategies to better integrate NP/PAs into rheumatology practice, and improve access to care for patients. The course has a strong focus on advanced information that will help experienced practice providers function well in rheumatology and foster interprofessional collaboration.

Target Audience

The course was created for nurse practitioners and physician assistants; however, rheumatology fellows-in training, internal medicine residents, medical students, primary care providers and other providers new to rheumatology may also benefit.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to do the following: 

• Assess and manage patients with rheumatic diseases as part of an interprofessional collaborative care team.
• Develop strategies to integrate the nurse practitioner and physician assistant into a collaborative rheumatology practice.
• Assist in decreasing wait times for appointments and improve access to care for patients with rheumatic disease by improving the competence and performance of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in a collaborative rheumatology practice.

Accreditation Statement

The American College of Rheumatology is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Designation Statement

The ACR designates this enduring material activity for a maximum of 25.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. 

Health Professionals

Participants may claim hours to receive a Certificate of Participation for an activity designated for AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.  By completing this activity, you provide the ACR permission to share completion data with the ACCME and the certifying board(s).

See the ACR's CME Mission Statement. For more information, download the AMA PRA Booklet.

Financial Relationships Disclosures

ACR Disclosure Statement

It is the policy of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) to ensure that Continuing Medical Education (CME) activities are independent and free of commercial bias. To ensure educational content is objective, balanced, and guarantee content presented is in the best interest of its learners' and the public, the ACR requires that everyone in a position to control educational content disclose all financial relationships with ineligible companies within the prior 24 months. An ineligible company is one whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. Examples can be found at http://accme.org .

In accordance with the ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, ACR has implemented mechanisms prior to the planning and implementation of this CME activity to identify and mitigate all relevant financial relationships for all individuals in a position to control the content of this CME activity.

For this educational activity, all conflicts of interest have been resolved through peer review and revisions to ensure independence, evidence based, fair balance, and absence of commercial bias.

All individuals involved or able to influence the content of this accredited activity have disclosed to the editorial team and audience any/all financial or other relationship(s) including, but not limited to:

None: Has no relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

ARC01: Musculoskeletal Structure And Function And Inflammation And Immunity

Authors/Planners:

Kenneth S. O’Rourke, MD - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Rachel M. Wolfe, MD - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Daniel Schaffer, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Anneke Smith – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Ben Smith, DMSc, PA-C, DFAAPA – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC02: Framework for Clinical Decision Making in Rheumatology

Authors/Planners: 

Megan Lockwood, MD - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Jennifer Grossman, MD - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Anneke Smith – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Sonam Kiwalkar, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC03:  Laboratory Evaluation of Rheumatic Disease

Authors/Planners:

Beth Jonas, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Laurie Hughell, MPH, PA-C - No relevant financial relationships to disclose 

Anneke Smith – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Ben Smith, DMSc, PA-C, DFAAPA – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC04: Imaging of Arthritis

Authors/Planners:

Beth Jonas, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Laurie Hughell, MPH, PA-C - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Anneke Smith – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Ben Smith, DMSc, PA-C, DFAAPA – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC05: Coding And Practice Issues

Authors/Planners:

J. Eugene Huffstutter, MD - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Fredrica Smith, MD - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Julie Lahti - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Ben Smith, DMSc, PA-C, DFAAPA - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC06: Therapeutic Interventions And Resources

Authors/Planners:

Donna Everix, MPH, PT - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Jennifer Trizuto, DPT - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Marie Westby, PT, PhD - Janssen Canada⁵; Ended 2020; Pfizer⁵; Ended 2020

Julie Lahti - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Ben Smith, DMSc, PA-C, DFAAPA - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC07: Osteoarthritis

Authors/Planners:

Abhijeet Danve, MD – AbbVie/Abbott¹; Novartis¹ 

Yuliya Afinogenova, MD - No relevant financial relationships to disclose 

Swetha Alexander, MD - No relevant financial relationships to disclose 

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Janeth Yinh, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose 

Anneke Smith – No relevant financial relationships to disclose 

Sonam Kiwalkar, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC08: RA and Seronegative Inflammatory Arthropathies

Authors/Planners:

Gregory C. Gardner, MD, MACP – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Sheila Arvikar, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Julie Lahti - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Sonam Kiwalkar, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC09: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Authors/Planners:

Mary Chester Wasko, MD, AbbVie/Abbott²; AstraZeneca²; EMD Serono²; GlaxoSmithKlein²; HGS²; Roche²

Joanna Marco, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Paul Monach, MD, PhD – Celgene¹; Chemocentryx⁶; Kiniksa¹⁶

Anneke Smith – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Marcy Bolster, MD – AbbVie²; American Board of Internal Medicine: Chair, ABIM Rheumatology Board⁶; Amgen²; Corbus Pharmaceuticals²; Cumberland²; Genentech²; Gilead Sciences⁵; Johnson & Johnson¹; Pfizer²

ARC10: Systemic Inflammatory Conditions

Authors/Planners:

Jason Kolfenbach, MD: ChemoCentryx⁵ 

Tara Skorupa, MD: No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Zsuzsanna McMahon – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Marcy Bolster, MD – AbbVie²; American Board of Internal Medicine: Chair, ABIM Rheumatology Board⁶; Amgen²; Corbus Pharmaceuticals²; Cumberland²; Genentech²; Gilead Sciences⁵; Johnson & Johnson¹; Pfizer²

Julie Lahti – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC11: Vasculitis, Arteritis and PMR

Authors/Planners:

Anisha Dua, MD - AbbVie/Abbott^{5, 8}; ChemoCentryx⁵; Novartis⁵

Josh Waytz, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Paul Monach, MD, PhD – Celgene¹; Chemocentryx⁶; Kiniksa

Anneke Smith – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Marcy Bolster, MD – AbbVie²; American Board of Internal Medicine: Chair, ABIM Rheumatology Board⁶; Amgen²; Corbus Pharmaceuticals²; Cumberland²; Genentech²; Gilead Sciences⁵; Johnson & Johnson¹; Pfizer²

ARC12:  Crystal-Induced Arthropathies

Authors/Planners:

Puja Khanna, MD – DYVE²; Horizon^1,2,5; Select^1,2

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Chio Yokose, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Anneke Smith – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Sonam Kiwalkar, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC13: Pain Syndromes

Authors/Planners:

Andrew Heisler, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Sonam Kiwalkar, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Christine Stamatos, DNP – No relevant financial relationships to disclose 

Julie Lahti – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC14: Spondyloarthritis

Authors/Planners:

Atul Deodhar, MD -  AbbVie/Abbott⁵²⁸;  Amgen⁵²⁸;  BMS⁵²⁸;  Boheringer Ingelheim⁵²⁸;  Celgene⁵²⁸;  Gilead⁵²⁸;  Glapagos⁵²⁸;  Janssen⁵²⁸;  Lilly⁵²⁸;  Novartis⁵²⁸;  Pfizer⁵²⁸;  UCB⁵²⁸

Anand Kumthekar, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Abhijeet Danve, MD – AbbVie/Abbott¹; Novartis¹

Anneke Smith – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Sonam Kiwalkar, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC15: Infection-Related Arthritis

Authors/Planners:

Robert A. Kalish, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Janet Hong, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Frank Scangarello, MD, PhD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Michael Battistone, MD – American Board of Internal Medicine Rheumatology Exam Committee⁶: Advisor or Review Panel member

Anneke Smith – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Marcy Bolster, MD – AbbVie²; American Board of Internal Medicine: Chair, ABIM Rheumatology Board⁶; Amgen²; Corbus Pharmaceuticals²; Cumberland²; Genentech²; Gilead Sciences⁵; Johnson & Johnson¹; Pfizer²

ARC16: Osteoporosis And Other Metabolic Bone Disorders

Authors/Planners:

Sarah Keller, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Alfred Denio, MD –  Abbvie⁸; Bristol-Myers Squibb⁵

Marcy Bolster, MD – AbbVie²; American Board of Internal Medicine: Chair, ABIM Rheumatology Board⁶; Amgen²; Corbus Pharmaceuticals²; Cumberland²; Genentech²; Gilead Sciences⁵; Johnson & Johnson¹; Pfizer²

Julie Lahti – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC17: Comprehensive Overview of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA)

Authors/Planners:

Betsy Roth-Wojcicki, RN, MS, CPNP-PC - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Heather Benham, APRN, CPNP, DNP, RhMSUS – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Anneke Smith - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Ben Smith, DMSc, PA-C, DFAAPA – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC18: Comprehensive Overview of Pediatric Connective Tissue Diseases (CTD)

Authors/Planners:

Heather Benham, DNP, APRN, CPNP-PC, RhMSUS – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Natasha Ruth, MD, MS – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Marcy Bolster, MD – AbbVie²; American Board of Internal Medicine: Chair, ABIM Rheumatology Board⁶; Amgen²; Corbus Pharmaceuticals²; Cumberland²; Genentech²; Gilead Sciences⁵; Johnson & Johnson¹; Pfizer²

Julie Lahti – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

ARC19: Pediatric Noninflammatory Musculoskeletal Pain

Authors/Planners:

Bethany A. Marston, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Content Reviewers Disclosures:

Susan Shenoi, MS, MBBS, RhMSUS – Pfizer⁵

Julie Lahti - No relevant financial relationships to disclose

Sonam Kiwalkar, MD – No relevant financial relationships to disclose

*All of the relevant financial relationships listed for these individuals have been mitigated.

Aknowledgement of Corporate Support

The project described was supported by Grant number 1 NU58DP006908-03-00 – Component A; Developing and Disseminating Programs to Build Sustainable Lupus Awareness, Knowledge, Skills and Partnerships. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Online Activity Refund Policy

• Requests for cancellations and refunds must be received in writing to education@rheumatology.org within 24 hours of the online activity enrollment date.
• Completed online activities are not eligible for a refund. 
• Refunds will be subject to an administration fee per person and per activity: 15% for members; 30% for potential members.
• Canceled online activities are nontransferable.