TY - JOUR T1 - Rheumanomics: Addressing Scarcity and Need in Rheumatologic Care JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 1 LP - 2 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.171179 VL - 45 IS - 1 AU - AMANDA STEIMAN Y1 - 2018/01/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/45/1/1.abstract N2 - They say that necessity is the mother of invention. And the delivery of rheumatologic care is in need of mothering.In this month’s Journal, Rostom and colleagues1 describe the use and benefits of an innovative eConsult service, developed to improve access to rheumatologic care in the Champlain region in eastern Ontario, Canada. They categorized the 225 eConsults directed to rheumatology over a span of nearly 4 years, between mid-2011 and early 2015, according to type of question posed and the effect of the interaction on face-to-face referral rates. The group found that referrals for osteoporosis, polyarthralgias, and polyarthritis were the most common, and that consults centered around drug treatment and diagnosis. The strengths cited were limited additional demand placed on a strained system, efficiency of response, referral avoidance, and high user satisfaction.With aging baby boomers, population expansion, migration, and the advent of complex rheumatologic therapies, there is a burgeoning need for rheumatologic care. The problem is one of supply and demand: either there is a shortage of rheumatologists or there are too many potential rheumatology patients. The solution is “simple”: What do we need? More rheumatologists. When do we want them? Now.Let us pause, however, to consider the truly scarce resource here: what we really need is increased rheumatologic acumen, systemwide, that can then be dispensed as rheumatologic assessments. Some clinical issues require multiple assessments, others need fewer. And while rheumatologists are acumen-dense and can provide a large number … Address correspondence to Dr. A. Steiman, Sinai Health System/University Health Network, Rebecca MacDonald Centre for Arthritis and Autoimmune Disease, 60 Murray St., Suite 2-223, Box 10, Toronto, Ontario M5T 3L9, Canada. E-mail: amanda.steiman{at}sinaihealthsystem.ca ER -