oa Introduction from Editor-in-Chief

The issue of interstitial lung disease (ILD) often comes up in the clinical practice of rheumatology. The etiology, risk factors, exacerbating factors, and treatment of ILD in the context of autoimmune diseases is the topic of this month's Current Rheumatology Reports. As laid out by Dr. Matteson in his editorial, research in this field is complicated by the lack of standardized criteria for the diagnosis and the lack of widely accepted outcome measurements. The international CTD-ILD interest group is trying to address this problem by developing standardized clinical trial assessments. In a thought provoking piece in this issue of the journal, this group has laid out their vision of how to achieve such a standardization. Additionally, superb reviews on ILD in scleroderma, SLE, RA, Sjogren's and myositis are presented here. The reader will also find useful insights in the review of The idiopathic interstitial pneumonias and CTD associated ILD by Swigris and colleagues. It has been our goal at the journal to provide a forum for thought leaders to share their insights on the state of their field of expertise. Indeed, we have achieved this goal spectacularly in this issue of the journal.