Introduction: A Good Time to Be a Rheumatologist

摘要

Although it was almost 10 years ago, I clearly remember my rheumatology attending saying those words to me during my residency, "It's a good time to be a rheumatologist." Now, looking back over the intervening years, I can see that he was more correct than he knew. The biotechnology revolution has affected few other subspecialties of medicine more positively than rheumatology. Diseases that often took a terrible toll in morbidity, pain, and disability, and that physicians would treat with marginally effective, toxic medications are now commonly treated with biotechnology drugs.1 These drugs are not only superior in their efficacy compared to older compounds, but also have the ability in many cases to slow or halt progression of disease. Additionally, our understanding of the pathophysiology of many of the rheumatic diseases has undergone a sea change. This has led to increasingly sophisticated therapeutic targets for these diseases that are currently in various stages of development.