The 1990 Ontario Health Survey found that musculoskeletal disorders were the most common reason for consulting a health care professional. Despite the frequency of these complaints, primary care physicians are often poorly equipped to manage patients with arthritis, back disease and osteoporosis. Many physicians received little or no instruction on these disorders in medical school. Even if they did, the information they learned may very well be obsolete: rheumatology has changed dramatically over the last decade, and in some cases what was once dogma now borders on malpractice.

CMAJ’s rheumatology series was developed to provide primary care physicians with up-to-date information on the diagnosis and management of patients with rheumatic complaints. The project was spearheaded by series editor John Esdaile, who heads the Division of Rheumatology of the University of British Columbia and serves as Scientific Director of the Arthritis Research Centre of Canada.

This series has been reviewed and endorsed by the Canadian Rheumatology Association.

The Arthritis Society salutes CMAJ for their extensive series of articles on arthritis. The Society believes that this kind of information is crucial to educating physicians about this devastating disease.

1. Is it arthritis?
2. What laboratory tests are needed?
3. Getting the most out of radiology
4. Acute monoarthritis
5. Diagnosis and management of inflammatory polyarthritis
6. Localized rheumatism
7. Basics of therapy
8. Advanced therapy
9. Physical and occupational therapy in the management of arthritis
10. Joint replacement of the hip and knee – when to refer and what to expect
11. Evaluation of the patient with pain all over
12. Pain in the neck
13. Minimizing disability in patients with low-back pain
14. Diagnosis and management of anterior knee pain
15. Osteoporosis
16. Diagnosing musculoskeletal pain in children