Abstract

The last decade witnessed the ascendancy of rheumatology to become one of the most dynamic and progressive across the fields of medicine. During the COVID-19 pandemic our discipline emerged at the forefront of molecular medicine with the rapid uptake of immune-modulatory therapeutics and depth of immune pathogenesis understanding contributing fundamentally to the COVID-19 response. The European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) played a fundamental and vital role in this response in guiding rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease (RMD) therapeutics, vaccine use and even treatment innovations in the context of COVID-19 itself. Given this remarkable contribution, it is timely to reflect on EULAR—what is it and for what does it stand? At its core, EULAR represents people with RMDs, including their national societies, health professionals in rheumatology and scientific societies of rheumatology across the European nations. Our mission is to reduce the burden of RMDs on individuals and society and improve the treatment and prevention of RMDs. In this message from the new EULAR President and Steering Group, we present the most relevant activities of EULAR, its strategic aims and the concept of the EULAR family, a fantastic team of people working together across the three pillars of medical, health professional and patient societies.