2026 ACR JIA Guidelines: What Clinicians Need to Know
Jun 16, 2026 · 51 min · 10 segments
The 2026 ACR Guidelines for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) are here, and lead…
- Speakers
Karen OnelGuest
John HausmannHost
Jun 16, 2026 · 51 min · 10 segments
The 2026 ACR Guidelines for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) are here, and lead…
Karen OnelGuestJohn HausmannHost
[upbeat music] Welcome back to another episode of ACR On Air, the official podcast of the American College of Rheumatology.
But sometimes, if you listen closely, they reveal something bigger, a field changing its mind about how urgently it needs to act.
This is what is happening in the updates to the ACR guidelines for juvenile idiopathic arthritis, or JIA.
One major shift is in systemic JIA, where the field is moving toward biologics first rather than slower stepwise treatment approaches that may delay effective care for too many kids.
In non-systemic JIA, the guidelines create more room to tailor treatment to how severe the disease is and which risk factors a child has, instead of pushing every patient through the same sequence before escalating.
And beyond medications, the guidelines also take a broader view of care with more attention to mental health, physical activity, rehabilitation, and the realities of growing up with a chronic disease.
It is about a deeper shift in s- philosophy, treating earlier, tailoring faster, and taking more seriously the full life of the child behind the diagnosis.
Dr. Onel is a pediatric rheumatologist, chief of pediatric rheumatology at the Hospital for Special Surgery, and professor of clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine.
She's widely recognized for her work in JIA and other pediatric rheumatic diseases, and for helping shape evidence-based national guidelines that inform how children with these conditions are treated.
Read the full transcript.
Create an account to read the whole episode, search across every transcript, and follow the shows you care about.
[upbeat music] Welcome back to another episode of ACR On Air, the official podcast of the American College of Rheumatology.
But sometimes, if you listen closely, they reveal something bigger, a field changing its mind about how urgently it needs to act.
This is what is happening in the updates to the ACR guidelines for juvenile idiopathic arthritis, or JIA.
One major shift is in systemic JIA, where the field is moving toward biologics first rather than slower stepwise treatment approaches that may delay effective care for too many kids.
In non-systemic JIA, the guidelines create more room to tailor treatment to how severe the disease is and which risk factors a child has, instead of pushing every patient through the same sequence before escalating.
And beyond medications, the guidelines also take a broader view of care with more attention to mental health, physical activity, rehabilitation, and the realities of growing up with a chronic disease.
It is about a deeper shift in s- philosophy, treating earlier, tailoring faster, and taking more seriously the full life of the child behind the diagnosis.
Dr. Onel is a pediatric rheumatologist, chief of pediatric rheumatology at the Hospital for Special Surgery, and professor of clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine.
She's widely recognized for her work in JIA and other pediatric rheumatic diseases, and for helping shape evidence-based national guidelines that inform how children with these conditions are treated.