- Joined
- Jan 15, 2006
- Messages
- 112
- Reaction score
- 0
PMR(MSK/sports) and Rheum seem similar in their line of work.... no?
PMR MSK vs. Rheum
- Thread starter peduncle
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2007
- Messages
- 4,182
- Reaction score
- 41
Similar, yes. Approaches to the patient can be quite different though. Rheums are internal med trained and therefore tend to use a lot more Rx meds. Also they tend to see a little different patient population. They see RA, SLE, AS way more than we do. PM&R tends to get more problems of spine (HNP, DDD), weakness and numbness and disabilities.
I work in a multi-disciplinary clinic (10 ortho, 2 podiatry, 2 rheum and myself). The rheums send me mainly spine as they don't like it much. They occasionally send me a patient for spasticity or nerve blocks. I send them pts who need DMARDs or a thorough rheum workup - I order the basic labs, but don't really get into all the antibodies and such that they look at.
Otherwise, we see a lot of simiilar patients and do a lot of similar treatments. I write for more PT, they write for more meds. We both do joint injections and TPIs. Rheums are generally trained to Dx and Tx on disease models, while PM&R looks at it from more aof a functional standpoint.
Rheums also tend to do more hospital consults than most outpt MSK PM&Rs. The last inpt consult I did was over a year ago. Our rheums go to the hospitals most every week.
I work in a multi-disciplinary clinic (10 ortho, 2 podiatry, 2 rheum and myself). The rheums send me mainly spine as they don't like it much. They occasionally send me a patient for spasticity or nerve blocks. I send them pts who need DMARDs or a thorough rheum workup - I order the basic labs, but don't really get into all the antibodies and such that they look at.
Otherwise, we see a lot of simiilar patients and do a lot of similar treatments. I write for more PT, they write for more meds. We both do joint injections and TPIs. Rheums are generally trained to Dx and Tx on disease models, while PM&R looks at it from more aof a functional standpoint.
Rheums also tend to do more hospital consults than most outpt MSK PM&Rs. The last inpt consult I did was over a year ago. Our rheums go to the hospitals most every week.
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2004
- Messages
- 3,017
- Reaction score
- 647
Rheum is Rheum (IM based with a focus on lab tests, pathophys of complex diesases and pharmacotherapies)
PM&R (MSK) is orthopedically based (including more abstract orthopedic evaluation including identification of subtle muscle imbalances, etc.)
The overlap is are certain Rheumatologic diseases with clear orthopaedic manifestations.
