New classification criteria for systemic sclerosis have just been published and are more sensitive than the 1980 criteria, enabling earlier identification and treatment of this disabling autoimmune disease. The 2013 criteria, developed by a joint committee commissioned by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR), are published in the ACR journal, Arthritis & Rheumatism. The joint ACR–EULAR committee was led by Dr. Janet Pope from Western University, St. Joseph’s Health Care London in Ontario, Canada, and Dr. Frank van den Hoogen from St. Maartenskliniek in The Netherlands. The committee’s intent was to improve the classification of systemic sclerosis by clustering items and simplifying the weighting of the different criteria. The new criteria set was tested for specificity and sensitivity by comparing scleroderma cases with controls (patients with disorders similar to scleroderma), and validated by experts viewing cases with and without the disease. Based on the new criteria, a patient with thickening of the skin in the middle part of the fingers (from proximal to the metacarpophalangeal joints) would be classified as having systemic sclerosis, regardless of other features. If this criterion was not met, however, then seven items with varying weights would need to be assessed in order to obtain a scleroderma classification: skin thickening of the fingers, fingertip lesions, telangiectasia, abnormal nailfold capillaries, pulmonary arterial hypertension and/or interstitial lung disease, Raynaud’s phenomenon, and SSc–related antibodies.