Facing the challenges of running a rheumatology-based ultrasound service in the COVID-19 era

The Covid-19 pandemic has had major implications for clinical rheumatology services. Departments have tried to minimize the spread of the virus by reducing patient attendances, for example by the increased use of telemedicine for the management of stable patients and those conditions deemed non-urgent. This has been largely successful and the practice may well be here to stay. However, US, a service now integral to many rheumatology clinics, cannot be performed remotely and requires close and sometimes prolonged patient contact. While general recommendations now exist for using US in the context of Covid-19 [1–3], none specifically address rheumatology-led US services. We would like to share some of our experiences to date at two large and busy clinical and research centres in countries with a high prevalence of Covid-19 infections.