Robert Ike Email & Phone Number

In the fall of '85, I became the first American academic rheumatologist to begin learning the technique of arthroscopy, including arthroscopic surgery, to apply to patients with arthritis. Over the next 17 years, I honed this skill, adapted new instrumentation to performance of the technique in the office or procedure room utilizing local anesthesia and conscious sedation, explored delivery of novel energies to primed synovium, and helped through courses and lectures teach the procedure to hundreds of other interested rheumatologists, both though American College of Rheumatology courses and other independent symposia, including several international venues. Along the way, I learned the value of other "certain technical procedures appropriate to our specialty", applying arthrocentesis, joint washout, and biopsies of skin, synovium, muscle (percutaneous), and the labial salivary glands. Doing such procedures not only provides important diagnostic information without having to rely on another specialist intermediary, but helps cement the important physical bond between physician and patient.

Listed skills include Teaching, Higher Education, Research, Statistics, and 1 others.