In plain English
Rheumatology is a medical, non-surgical specialty. The conditions it covers are long-term and systemic, so the work is clinic-based and continuing, and heavy on laboratory monitoring and on biologic and immune-modifying drugs.
It is a small specialty with a wide catchment. Many patients are managed in primary care between visits, and a good deal of musculoskeletal care goes instead to orthopaedics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, or physical therapy. Orthopaedic surgeons operate; rheumatologists do not.
Pediatric rheumatology is a separate fellowship taken after a pediatrics residency and is filed under its own code. For a specialty this small, the practical consequence is geographic: many markets have no rheumatologist at all, and a state-level count is often the whole story rather than a starting point.
Training and credentials
An internal medicine residency, a two-year rheumatology fellowship, then board certification.
Where they practise
Hospital and health-system specialty clinics, infusion suites, academic divisions, and some independent single-specialty practice.
Rheumatologists on the public record
Counted from what providers file about themselves, with suppression applied before anything is counted, refreshed 2026-10-05. Names, specialties and practice locations are public; work email and phone are for signed-in customers.
| State | On record | With work email | With practice phone |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 1,159 | 861 74% | 1,159 |
| Texas | 770 | 512 66% | 770 |
| New York | 737 | 543 74% | 737 |
| Florida | 721 | 440 61% | 721 |
| Pennsylvania | 530 | 386 73% | 530 |
| Illinois | 394 | 318 81% | 394 |
| Massachusetts | 379 | 322 85% | 379 |
| Ohio | 346 | 267 77% | 346 |
Closely related, and where to find them.
Closely related
- Internal medicine physician Adult general medicine, and the classification most sub-specialties are filed beneath.
- Orthopedic surgeon Bones, joints and spine - and the device-heavy specialty that owns its own surgery centres.
- Physiatrist (PM&R) The physician specialty of function and non-surgical musculoskeletal care.
Find them
- Rheumatologists list counts by state, the fields a record carries, a sample record.
- Physicians physician data by specialty, state and employer.
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