Arthritis Today highlights the advances in treatment for inflammatory arthritis, particularly the introduction of biologics nearly two decades ago, and current research that will continue to shape treatment in the future.

Karen Brandt Onel, MD, rheumatologist and chief of pediatric rheumatology at HSS, completed her pediatric rheumatology fellowship three years prior to FDA approval of the first biologic agent, and stated, “I am the last generation that will remember what it was like before biologics. We used to spend half our time teaching fellows about rehab and braces. The truth is we don’t do that stuff anymore - our patients just get better.”

Dr. Onel added, “In pictures of the JA [juvenile arthritis] camps and JA conferences now, you can’t tell the patients from their siblings. In the olden days it wasn’t like that [kids with JA were] in wheelchairs or using canes and crutches and walkers.”

This article appeared in the May-June 2019 print issue.