Expanded Sanford Rheumatology Clinic provides cutting-edge treatment

Jan. 14, 2020

This paid piece is sponsored by Sanford Health.

The Sanford Rheumatology Clinic, now located in the Sanford Imagenetics building, has doubled its team and now includes five physicians who are ready to help patients improve their lives.

This team of experienced physicians provides innovative, cutting-edge treatments to help relieve joint pain — treating arthritis, rheumatism, gout and over 100 related diseases.

Rheumatologists treat problems affecting the bones, tendons, joints, ligaments and their connective tissues. If someone is having pain in these areas, they will help find the cause and develop a treatment plan.

“We need to be exceptional diagnosticians because the diseases we deal with are multisystem,” said Dr. Vivek Joseph, a rheumatologist at Sanford Health. “We need a broad knowledge of all subspecialties of internal medicine.”

Solving a puzzle of pain

Patients should see a rheumatologist if:

  • They have joint pain lasting for more than one week at a time.
  • They have joint swelling.
  • Activity makes their joint pain better and rest makes their joint pain worse.
  • They have stiffness around a joint that lasts beyond mornings.
  • Redness or warmth surrounds a joint.

Joseph urges those who experience these symptoms to talk with their primary care provider about seeing a rheumatologist.

Patients will find when meeting a rheumatologist that the focus is on them. Their rheumatologist will ask many questions to try to piece together the puzzle of the joint pain.

“It is your body, and you know it better than anyone,” Joseph said.

There are over 100 types of arthritis alone, and each requires a different treatment plan. So finding the cause of pain is a rheumatologist’s priority.

Once diagnosed, a detailed and personalized treatment plan is developed. Treatment options can include medications or joint injections. The purpose is to calm down the hyperactive immune system that is often causing the pain.

Providing innovative treatments

Through the use of musculoskeletal ultrasound, Joseph and his colleagues can diagnose and treat patients with improved accuracy and safety. The team can even reduce pain during a joint injection procedure with a quicker process.

“I often joke that my ultrasound machine is like Superman’s X-ray vision,” Joseph said. “It sees into the body to provide a picture of the pain source and where to direct the treatment.”

All the joints in the body are very complex structures. Instead of relying on touch and experience to determine optimal injection placement, the ultrasound allows the physician to more accurately position the needle, keeping it away from blood vessels or nerves that could cause complications.

Through treatments like this, the team at the Sanford Rheumatology Clinic provides the comprehensive and compassionate care Joseph believes medicine should be founded on.

“It is my job to help patients, and we are always here to find answers, so they can live their best quality of life,” he said.

Please contact your primary care physician to place a referral for you to see a Sanford Rheumatology specialist.

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Expanded Sanford Rheumatology Clinic provides cutting-edge treatment

The Sanford Rheumatology Clinic has doubled its team and now includes five physicians who are ready to help patients improve their lives.

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