12 August 2026
Autoinflammatory Awareness Month is an opportunity to focus attention on conditions that can be rare, complex and difficult to recognise - but it is also a chance to look at what better care requires.
From the founding of the Heberden Society in 1936 and the creation of BSR in 1984, the rheumatology community has helped transform how inflammatory diseases are understood and treated. As care has moved from a limited range of broadly acting medicines towards biologic and targeted therapies, we have supported the research, education, clinical guidance and long-term monitoring needed to translate these advances into everyday practice.
For people with autoinflammatory disease, where treatment increasingly reflects a deeper understanding of the immune pathways driving inflammation, that history matters. Progress depends not only on discovering new therapies, but on building the professional expertise and systems needed to use them safely, consistently and effectively.
Our National Early Inflammatory Autoimmune Diseases Audit (NEIAA) was established to improve care for people with inflammatory arthritis. The audit now also collects diagnosis data for some rare immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. By measuring how patients move through services and where variation exists, NEIAA helps provide the evidence needed to improve quality nationally.
Data is only one part of the picture. Our clinical guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations for practice, with guidance spanning conditions including lupus, ANCA-associated vasculitis, behçets, systemic sclerosis and inflammatory myopathies - diseases that, like autoinflammatory conditions, often require specialist, multidisciplinary care across the life course. Our guidelines are supported by implementation resources, audit tools, podcasts and educational content designed to help translate evidence into practice.
Education is equally important. Through webinars, eLearning, conferences and professional development, for years we've been supporting clinicians to build the knowledge and confidence needed to recognise and manage complex inflammatory disease. Our education programme has included dedicated learning on topics such as periodic fever syndromes, covering presentation, investigation and management.
Autoinflammatory Awareness Month is a moment to raise awareness. But lasting progress comes from what happens beyond the awareness month: better recognition, better evidence, better education and better systems of care.
Through our guidelines, audits, education, research and policy work, our Society has and is continuing to help build the foundations for that progress - supporting the rheumatology community to improve care for people with complex inflammatory disease, from childhood through adulthood.