Challenges and opportunities in telerheumatology in the COVID-19 era. Response to: 'Online management of rheumatoid arthritis during COVID-19 pandemic' by Zhang et al .

We thank Zhang et al for the interest showed in our letter1 and appreciate their comments about the care of rheumatic patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.2 We agree that the function of all rheumatology outpatient clinics around the world has changed. It is a fact that the complexity of the care of rheumatic disease patients implies challenges, both to follow-up knew patients and control their diseases and also in the evaluation of patients with onset of new symptoms who potentially could be caused by a rheumatic disease. In patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), from the five clinical encounter components (vital signs, patient history, physical examination, laboratory tests and ancillary studies), patient’s history and physical examination are the most important in their diagnosis and management compared with other …