Pediatric RHEUMATOLOGY has always been and under recognised subspecialty dealing with specifically childhood arthritis, connective tissue disorders, vasculitis, and other autoimmune disorders. Many parts of our country do not have access to trained pediatric rheumatologists. With an expected prevalence of 1 in 250 children having some form of juvenile arthritis, the numbers in a vast country like our vis a vis rheumatological disorders would add up significantly.

“Rythm”, a clinical module aims to address such lacunae by training pediatricians from across the country and through them further disseminate the knowledge to the far end corners. To address the unmet needs to improve and disseminate training and knowledge eventually culminating into helping families with children affected, the module aims to provide a bird’s eye view of the 6 commonly encountered conditions in pediatric rheumatology. The sessions would be learning through clinical cases and an interactive format and once the select group of pediatricians get trained with the assistance of the core expert group, subsequent sessions will be held in the outreach 2 tier and 3 tier cities of the country and possibly medical colleges.

The module with a concerted effort of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) and the experts from the Pediatric rheumatology society (PRSI) should go along way in creating the much-needed awareness in many parts of India while improving and polishing the already existing skills sets and knowledge based in the other parts.

A total of 8 such activities have been conducted in the year 2023 in different parts of India – Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Srinagar, Navi Mumbai, Bhilai, Jaipur, and Goa.