The Division of Rheumatology currently is comprised of 15 staff consultants, four to six fellows in training, and approximately 40 allied health staff. Consultants are involved in clinical practice and research. Basic research involves models of rheumatoid arthritis and HLA B-27 related diseases as well as understanding mechanisms of disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, giant cell arteritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, and others.
Clinical research includes therapeutic trials of established drugs and new innovative agents.
Epidemiology of rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, different types of vasculitis, spondyloarthropathies and others is being studied. The staff consultants of the division see approximately 14,000 patients per year. These include over 100 types of arthritis including common diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, but also rare diseases such as relapsing polychondritis and multicentric reticulohistiocytosis.