Rheumatology fellows, residents, and medical students participate in patient care at the VA Hospital's five Arthritis Clinics a week, as well as on the inpatient rheumatology consult service.
Clinical team
The rheumatology team consists of Dr. Thomas Taylor, Dr. Carey Field, and the rheumatology fellows from the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) rheumatology fellowship program. Thomas H. Taylor, MD is the Chief of Rheumatology and Infectious Disease at the White River Junction V.A. Regional Medical Center. Dr. Field is the liaison to the rheumatology fellowship program at DHMC, and she serves as the rheumatology fellowship coordinator/director at the WRJ VA. She works closely with the fellows, residents, and medical students as a clinical educator. Both Dr. Field and Dr. Taylor are active in clinical education and clinical research and are currently involved in a VA national study related to gout.
Services
In addition to rheumatology and infectious disease, the WRJ VA team has on-site specialty care in pulmonology, nephrology, cardiology, ophthalmology, endocrinology, dermatology, neurology, psychiatry, general surgery, and surgical subspecialties including orthopedics and ENT, radiology (DEXA scanning for osteoporosis), ophthalmology, physical therapy, podiatry, occupational therapy, pain medicine, and social services. These services are all available for the management of complex diseases. We work closely with other subspecialties to provide the highest level of care to our patients with multi-organ inflammatory or connective tissue diseases.
Rheumatologic aspects of infectious diseases include:
- HIV clinic
- Lyme disease
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Gulf war illness
- Evaluation of patients with unknown causes of fever or inflammatory biomarkers
Clinical studies
The White River Junction VA Hospital team has been recently involved in multiple studies:
- RACAT Study: Rheumatoid arthritis: comparison of active therapies in patients with active disease despite methotrexate therapy. Published
- Gout Study: Therapy for acute gout: does initial use of Allopurinol influence duration and/or recurrence rate of acute attacks? Published
- STOP GOUT Study: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing allopurinol with febuxostat for efficacy and side effects.
- Effect of Uric Acid Control on Serum Creatinine