On this special Ask the Expert episode of Around the Rheum, Daniel Ennis and his newly promoted co-host (!) Janet Pope, take a deep dive into Osteoarthritis (OA) with Dr. Tom Appleton, Janet's colleague at Western University and a leading OA specialist.

In this first of two episodes Daniel, Janet, and Tom address important questions about Osteoarthritis, including how to define and diagnose it, why early diagnosis is important, do OA subtypes matter, why it affects some joints and not others, and does it belong to Rheumatology?

Be sure to check out part two of this OA conversation with Tom Appleton, about best practices for treatment.

If you have any questions you'd like to ask in our possible upcoming "Ask the Expert" episodes on Sjogren's Syndrome, Autoinflammatory Diseases, and/or Ig4-Related Disease, please send us an e-mail at info@rheum.ca (mailto:info@rheum.ca) or tag us on social media at @CRASCRRheum (https://twitter.com/CRASCRRheum).

Bios:

-Dr. Tom Appleton is a rheumatologist at St. Joseph’s Health Care in London Ontario, and a Clinician-Scientist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Western University, where his research focus is Osteoarthritis.

-Dr. Janet Pope is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Western Ontario, Schulich School of Medicine, London, Ontario. She is also the Division Head in Rheumatology at St. Joseph's Health Centre in London. 

-Dr. Daniel Ennis is a Rheumatologist and Vasculitis Specialist at the University of British Columbia.

Special Thanks:

Around the Rheum is produced by the Canadian Rheumatology Association's Communications Committee.

A special thank you to the podcast team, Dr. Dax G. Rumsey (CRA Communications Committee Chair), Dr. Daniel Ennis (Host), David McGuffin (Producer, Explore Podcast Productions) and Kevin Baijnauth (CRA) for leading production.

Our theme music was composed by Aaron Fontwell.

For more on the work of the Canadian Rheumatology Association, visit rheum.ca (http://rheum.ca)