ABSTRACT
Rheumatologists are easy to categorise into two distinct types. Unfortunately, this can be done on at least three separate criteria.
By Method 1, Type A believes that rheumatology is the last bastion of general medicine. They revel in their position as one of a dying breed, practitioners knowledgeable in all fields. They nurture this belief in others and gaily take over the management of patients belonging to all and sundry at the slightest whiff of a rheumatological diagnosis — or simply because their diagnosis is regarded as 'tricky'. Type B takes the opposite view to the same scenario. They resent the imposition of constant requests to see (or even 'take over7) everybody whose problem could conceivably include a rheumatological component. Patients with the worst illness on the planet, with the worst symptoms on the planet, eventually mention that their muscles ache, so the rheumatologist is dragged along and invited to take over the management of someone who should no more be under their care than a guy who's been impaled against a fence by a 10-inch spike through his thyroid should call an endocrinologist. While Type A demands to be informed of any patients with UTI/chest pain/pneumonia and an ESR above 42 in case they have SLE, Type B wants to be left alone to look after the people they think have arthritis (which is the disease they read about in a book once) and drink lots of good coffee (Type A likes instant).
