Spring 2018 (Volume 28, Number 1)

Rheumatology Workforce in Canada

By Claire Barber, MD, PhD, FRCPC

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The Arthritis Alliance of Canada’s System Level Performance Measures were designed to evaluate models of care to ensure patients with inflammatory arthritis receive timely diagnosis and treatment. Central to ensuring timely care is making sure there are adequate numbers of rheumatologists for making an early diagnosis and starting appropriate treatment.

In 2015, the Canadian Rheumatology Association launched “Stand Up and Be Counted,” a national workforce survey of rheumatologists across Canada. The results highlighted that there is a current shortage of rheumatologists across the country that may worsen over the next 10 years because a third of the workforce reported plans to retire in the near future.

Further analysis of the results of the survey will be published imminently in The Journal of Clinical Rheumatology and will describe factors associated with rheumatologists’ clinical work hours and patient volumes.

Dr. Claire Barber, Assistant Professor, Rheumatologist, University of
Calgary, Calgary, AB

Reference:

Barber CEH, et al. Stand Up and Be Counted: Measuring and Mapping the Rheumatology Workforce in Canada. J Rheumatol 2017; 44(2):248-57.