The final round of the RheumMadness tournament is complete, and the winner is…

Reproductive health guide was an underdog in this matchup, with 13% of participants picking it to win compared to 26% of participants who picked the juggernaut CAR-T cells.

However, the Blue Ribbon Panel felt differently, voting for Repro health guide in a 6 to 1 landslide. We are sure this won’t be controversial at all!

After the dust settled, the winning brackets in each category are: 

• Attending/APP: CAR-T Before the Horse
• Fellow: asbagrova
• Resident / Medical Student: sabahat.usmani

Congratulations to our winners! To see the final results of your bracket, head over to the Tourneytopia website.

Comments from the Panel

By popular demand, we have collected anonymous comments from our fabulous Blue Ribbon Panel about their experience on the panel and why they made the choices they did. Just in case anyone has anything they’d like to say to the panel, you can find each of their Twitter handles on the Blue Ribbon Panel page.

Comment 1: “As a member of the #RheumMadness 2022 Blue Ribbon Panel, my aim was to focus on impact. To me, that means papers that change how we approach a disease, a test, or a treatment. As a pediatric rheumatologist, I was thrilled to see that a paper that focused on pediatric rheumatology made it to the big dance. I voted for ideas or approaches that push us forward as a field, even if they are still works in progress. I was so impressed by the work the teams put into the scouting reports- they definitely worked hard to box out the other teams in the paint. I voted for the increasing positive ANA study, even though it didn’t make it out of the first bracket. I think understanding the relationship between positive autoantibodies, background prevalence of autoantibodies, and autoimmunity will be important moving forward. I learned a lot, had a blast following the competition, and will definitely be back next year to join in the tourney.”

Comment 2: “My dark horse in this race was Axolotl Limbs. I was pulling hard for these amazing amphibians. The more I read about how axolotls regenerated of cartilage, the more I could see the substantial impact leveraging this would have for millions (maybe billions?) of people. All in all, the close votes we have seen the BRP voting really highlight some of the subtle differences in what we individually value as important. For example, is more certain short-term gain more important than high possible (i.e. unrealized) long-term potential? That’s why we play folks!”

Comment 3: “I loved the opportunity to read the base articles as a panel member! I voted NOW over FUTURE, for collaborative efforts, and for tools and knowledge that are broadly applicable. I voted pragmatic over theoretical. My kids tell me this is “adulting” and it makes me boring. Oh well.

I voted for NETs. They are everywhere. Gout and COVID are just the beginning. CAR-T cells are in the future, one great case can’t be the winner. I went with the masses on DECT. Distinguishing between OA, crystal disease and SN disease is one of the hardest things we do. It lacks the luster of distorted vessels and giant cells lighting up the aorta but its use will help avoid mistreating. Also, AI seemed more Elizabeth Holmes than Steve Jobs right now.

I voted for the arthritic canines over adorable Aztec amphibians. Have you seen Fido enthusiastically chase squirrels after a dose of doggie meds? As much as I would love to heal my chronic ankle sprain, I’m taking the dog!!

And my winner….Talking with our patients is our greatest power, more than any therapy or diagnostic tool. To acknowledge the importance of reproductive health, especially right now, and to celebrate the immense collaboration it took, repro health guidelines get the W from me.”

Comment 4: “Many thanks for the invitation to be part of the this year’s RheumMadness event. The scouting reports are phenomenal and the Madness reigns. My personal approach was to generally prioritize practicality over promise. That said, it was tough to not get swept up in the sci-fi like mechanism and potential power of CAR-T cells. In the end, though, a document like the Repro Health Guide gives us an incredible tool in taking care of our patients with rheumatic disease in the now and has my vote. What a remarkable event that creates a yearly reading list for those of us in rheumatology! To many more years of Madness!”

Comment 5: “Repro Health Guidelines should hands down be the winner of the tournament. Like the report said, “we are de facto women’s health providers” reflecting the female predominance in our clinics. These guidelines will help patients and doctors immediately and for a long time to come, impacting clinical practice right now.

With RheumMadness, I always learn a lot about what is going on in the world of rheumatology, including subjects we may miss out on at times, like reports from the Cells region and Animals region. Things I read in RheumMadness are rarely forgotten just because it is so much fun and interactive.

Increasing ANA positivity is a fact we are already quite aware of as rheumatologists – it is our bread and butter. But false positive MRIs for axial spondyloarthropathy usually presents a challenge. More research is needed for MRIs, whereas ANA positivity will hardly change rheumatology practices. This upset was necessary.

No matter how old we get or how much we advance in our careers, there is always a little child inside of us, who just wants to have fun, play with like-minded kids (or colleagues), and have the chance for some trash-talk. RheumMadness is the creative innovation that provided all that with the additional benefit of learning, and whether we know it or not, we really needed it in our day-to-day grind!”

Comment 6: “Participating in the blue ribbon panel was really a fun and educational experience. I really enjoyed reviewing scouting reports on topics I wouldn’t otherwise learn about. It was a great way to interface with the growing knowledge base in rheumatology. I think it was great how the topics were grouped so that the initial advances were very comparable items. I do think it would be hard for some of the more obscure topics to compete against something as impactful as reproductive health guidelines that heavily influence patient care. I really appreciate the opportunity to be part of this panel and found the entire process really rewarding, fun and insightful.”

THANK YOU

Lastly, we would like to thank all our amazing collaborators who helped make RheumMadness possible.

• Rheumatology Research Foundation for funding RheumMadness through the Clinician Scholar Educator Award.
• Scouting Report Creators: There were 70 collaborators from 13  institutions involved in writing the scouting reports for RheumMadness 2022. These reports were amazing learning resources and a ton of fun to read. Thank you to these amazing collaborators for helping us learn together! Find links to each scouting report here.
• Blue Ribbon Panel Members: Belinda Birnbaum, MD, Ashira Blazer, MD, Kevin Byram, MD, Anisha Dua, MD, MPH, Al Kim, MD, PhD, Laura Lewandowski, MS, MD, and Iman Qaiser, MD. Read more about the Blue Ribbon Panel here.
• RheumMadness Leadership Team: David Leverenz, MD, Akrithi Garren, MD, Guy Katz, MD, Lauren He, MD, Ben Kellog, MD, Michael Macklin, MD, Courtney Bair, Matthew Sparks, MD, and Lisa Criscione-Schreiber, MD, MEd. Read more about the leadership team here.
• NephMadness collaborators: This project was inspired by a similar project in nephrology called NephMadness, which is currently in its 10th year. We are thankful for their collaboration and mentorship, especially from Dr. Matt Sparks.

It takes a whole year to plan this tournament. If you want to get involved in the leadership team, help create a scouting report, suggest a team, or in some other way help out with RheumMadness, please contact us!