PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Elizabeth Price
AU  - Elizabeth MacPhie
AU  - Lesley Kay
AU  - Peter Lanyon
AU  - Bridget Griffiths
AU  - Christopher Holroyd
AU  - Abhishek Abhishek
AU  - Taryn Youngstein
AU  - Kathryn Bailey
AU  - Jacqui Clinch
AU  - Muddassir Shaikh
AU  - Ali Rivett
TI  - Identifying rheumatic disease patients at high risk and requiring shielding during the COVID-19 pandemic
AID  - 10.7861/clinmed.2020-0149
DP  - 2020 May 01
TA  - Clinical Medicine
PG  - 256--261
VI  - 20
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/20/3/256.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/20/3/256.full
SO  - Clin Med2020 May 01; 20
AB  - Rheumatology teams care for patients with diverse, systemic autoimmune diseases who are often immunosuppressed and at high risk of infections. The current COVID-19 pandemic has presented particular challenges in caring for and managing this patient group. The office of the chief medical officer (CMO) for England contacted the rheumatology community to provide expert advice on the identification of extremely vulnerable patients at very high risk during the COVID-19 pandemic who should be ‘shielded’. This involves the patients being asked to strictly self-isolate for at least 12 weeks with additional funded support provided for them to remain at home. A group of rheumatologists (the authors) have devised a pragmatic guide to identifying the very highest risk group using a rapidly developed scoring system which went live simultaneous with the Government announcement on shielding and was cascaded to all rheumatologists working in England.