The Department of Rheumatology and Immunology operates on three sites and treats patients suffering from degenerative musculoskeletal diseases, inflammatory and autoimmune rheumatological diseases. The Outpatient Specialist Care Centre primarily receives patients with progression levels I and II (degenerative joint diseases, soft tissue rheumatisms, osteoporosis, gout, uncomplicated arthritis) in 5 specialist clinics at the same time. There is also an outpatient physiotherapy unit which complements the treatment of patients.
The main profiles of the two rheumatology and one autoimmune specialist clinic operating on Nagyerdei Campus are arthritides of progression level III (rheumatoid arthritis spondyloarthritides, etc.), systemic autoimmune rheumatologic disease (systemic sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, mixed connective tissue disease, Sjögren’s syndrome, inflammatory muscle diseases, vasculitis, undifferentiated autoimmune disease, etc.), immunodeficiency conditions and autoinflammatory diseases, where we also accept patients from distant places in addition to our obligation to provide in-area care. In addition, on the Nagyerdei Campus we provide inpatient care on 20 beds, 15 of which are allocated for the inpatient care of rheumatology patients and the remaining 5 to clinical immunology patients.
The Kenézy Campus with an Arthritis Outpatient Clinic and a 30-bed ward provides both outpatient and inpatient care, where degenerative musculoskeletal and inflammatory rheumatological diseases may be treated.
Inpatient care at both campuses is completed by a physiotherapy unit. Furthermore, both campuses operate as Arthritis Center with associated infusion units for treatment with targeted biological therapies. Based on the wide spectrum of diseases treated by the department, it maintains a close contact with allied professions and assists in providing quality patient care as a member of multidisciplinary teams. At the highest progressivity level patients are treated by specialists with multiple specialist examination and extensive professional experience, with the help of other health care professionals with specialized knowledge.
We are constantly involved in various controlled drug trials, too.
We coordinate the education with Dr. Zoltán Szekanecz who is the head of the Department of Rheumatology and we work with the Department of Immunology of the Department of Internal Medicine, too. During the graduate training, our tasks are propaedeutics of internal medicine, education of clinical immunology and rheumatology and we also educate at the Physiotherapy Course of the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Tourism and Hospitality of the Faculty of Public Health and at the Faculty of Pharmacy. In the postgraduate training, our main tasks are the training of rheumatologists, but we also take part in the training of specialists of the border areas (orthopedics, traumatology, neurosurgery, radiology, clinical immunology and allergology) and we regularly organize further trainings for family doctors.
In addition to patient care and education, our organizational unit also conducts clinical research which is primarily targeting the pathogenesis and comorbidities of arthritis and systemic autoimmune diseases.