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R o m
a t e z m e y a t A quartely newsletter from ECHE Introductory dialogues followed by educational articles
Introduction
The rheumatology or rheumatism specialty is one of the medical specialties that suffer poor public awareness especially in the Middle East. A study we undertook in 2008 showed that more than 95% of people in our countries believe rheumatism is the name of a disease that affects old people and that causes chronic pains in the joints. They do not know that rheumatism is the name of the medical specialty that deals with all disorders of the musculoskeletal system (joints, ligaments, muscles, tendons and bones) that can affect any age (from children to old subjects) and that it covers more than 200 different disorders. Interestingly, when young persons are referred to a rheumatologist, many of them are even reluctant to make the consultation on the assumption they were referred by mistake since, according to them, they are not old to go to the rheumatism doctor.
Needless to say, poor awareness with the specialty of rheumatology can have serious consequences especially when it comes to patients suffering from chronic autoimmune diseases as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus for example. Such disorders require a correct and, at the same time, timely diagnosis and management by a rheumatologist so that complications could be avoided later.
In addition to poor awareness with the rheumatology specialty, people are having a lot of false beliefs about the causes and ways of treatment of even the most common musculoskeletal ailments. Such beliefs mostly translate into wrong practices that do not benefit patients and that even cause them harm.
Romatezmeyat, that is starting its issues with this first issue, is undertaking the mission of reaching out to the public to educate them about the various rheumatic disorders and to make sure that they are well oriented with what the rheumatology specialty is about and with what the rheumatologist is doing.
What you will read in Romatezmeyat
Each issue of Romatezmeyat features an introductory dialogue between the Romatezmeyat character, Mr. Ghawi Fatawi and others. Ghawi Fatawi is a retired government employee whose diploma, many years ago, had been in agriculture. His name, which is an Arabic name, means the person who is always giving expert advice to others although he is not qualified to do that.
Fatawi is especially fond of giving medical advice to his friends and neighbors who, unfortunately, keep on believing in him as a knowledgeable man in medicine in spite of the disasters that his advices are causing in their lives every day.
Within the context of the dialogues, the most common misconceptions of the public about rheumatism/joint diseases from causation to management and also their misconceptions about the services offered by the rheumatologist are revealed. The dialogues are then followed by an educational article, the main body of the newsletter that deals with those misconceptions.
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