An insight into rheumatology in Thailand

Rheumatic diseases are a common health-care problem in Thailand. Patient care is influenced not only by differences in the prevalence, clinical traits and genetic variants of these diseases in Thailand compared with other countries, but by the country's health-care systems, availability of medicine and physicians, and rheumatology training, education and research. The author provides his expert view of the current challenges and barriers, recent successes and future prospects of rheumatology in Thailand.