“I think rheumatologists have an important role to play because pain is a dominant feature and because fibromyalgia is often comorbid with inflammatory rheumatic conditions,” Dr. Macfarlane said. “But I think we should be looking at other models of care for these patients as well.”
Because patients are referred in and out of various specialties, “there is no one really looking at the overall management, thinking about them holistically,” he said. “There’s a need for us to organize health care services better, so when we have a patient with fibromyalgia-like symptoms, we manage their journey through the system effectively instead of ping-ponging them around.”
Dr. Macfarlane has given lectures on behalf of Janssen and has received research support from Pfizer.