Development of an application for mobile phones (App) based on the collaboration between the Spanish Society of Rheumatology and Spanish Society of Family Medicine for the referral of systemic autoimmune diseases from primary care to rheumatology.

Management of systemic autoimmune diseases is challenging for physicians in their clinical practice. Although not common, they affect thousands of patients in Spain. The family doctor faces patients with symptoms and non-specific cutaneous, mucous, joint, vascular signs or abnormal laboratory findings at the start of the disease process and has to determine when to refer patients to the specialist.

Variability in Rheumatology day care hospitals in Spain: VALORA study.

Objective: To describe the variability of the day care hospital units (DCHUs) of Rheumatology in Spain, in terms of structural resources and operating processes.

Material And Methods: Multicenter descriptive study with data from a self-completed questionnaire of DCHUs self-assessment based on DCHUs quality standards of the Spanish Society of Rheumatology. Structural resources and operating processes were analyzed and stratified by hospital complexity (regional, general, major and complex).

[How does one manage patients with rheumatoid arthritis and positive serology to hepatitis B, hepatitis C, human immunodeficiency virus?].

Chronic viral infections in rheumatic patients are a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Some of the disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) commonly used in rheumatoid arthritis, such as methotrexate and leflunomide, are hepatotoxic. With biological therapy, which is now widely used in patients refractory to these and other DMARD, some cases of reactivation of hepatitis B, even fulminant cases, have been reported, especially when employing TNF antagonists and rituximab, so their use must be carefully assessed and usually accompanied by antiviral therapy.