Rheumatology: What You May Have Missed in 2025

Internal medicine physicians are often the first physicians from whom patients with rheumatic conditions seek guidance, and they collaborate with rheumatologists when caring for these patients. Here, we summarize 6 studies published in the rheumatology literature in 2025 of relevance to internal medicine specialists and subspecialists who are not rheumatologists. The first study concerns the treat-to-target urate strategy for gout. The second study compared the benefits of a very-low-calorie diet and exercise compared with exercise alone in patients with hip osteoarthritis. The investigators of the third study examined the step counts of purposeful walking and incidence of symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. The fourth study explored the burden of nonarticular pain on quality of life in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis. The fifth study suggested that metformin showed promise in improving knee pain, stiffness, and function in patients with knee osteoarthritis. The last study compared nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs with colchicine in preventing gout exacerbation when initiating urate-lowering therapy. These articles offer new insights for the management of rheumatic conditions that internal medicine physicians often manage.