here is my insight today..i trained at a hospital that had a very solid rheumatology service..but i never saw a case of PMR..GCA many cases easily diagnosed and treated..but PMR is really an outpatient disease so a doctor in training doesn't see this often unless he is a rheumatology fellow..having said that when one has joint pains you just dont want to run to the doctor and you write it off as just getting old or garden variety arthritis..even i as a physician did this and delayed my diagnosis..after self treating with a medrol dose pack and getting better i did not pursue my symptoms until they recurred..with this history any rheumatologist worth his salt could make the diagnosis..moral of story is if you are over fifty and have sudden onset of joint pains, see a rheumatologist