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Like other areas of medicine, rheumatology is facing a significant workforce shortage. As documented in a recently published study by the ACR, the demand for rheumatology clinical services is expected to exceed the supply of rheumatology providers by 2030.1
Without a concerted effort to explore ways to retain rheumatology providers in the workforce, this imbalance of supply and demand in the years to come will significantly affect access to, and the quality of, care that patients need. The recent ACR study is a major step toward developing effective strategies to retain rheumatologists and better understand why the imbalance is developing.
Alongside and complementary to the effort to retain rheumatology providers are efforts within the ACR to train rheumatologists who want to advance their careers into rheumatology research. A recent program developed jointly by the ACR and the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) to help pediatric rheumatologists advance their careers has—since its inception in 2010—become a main way for fellows and junior faculty to receive the training necessary for a career that includes research.