Each specialty of medicine (and surgery) employs certain technical procedures appropriate to their specialty. Occasionally, those procedures require performance in an operating room environment. With the O.R. considered the province of the surgeon, such trespass by non-surgeons is not always well accepted. Rheumatologists seeking to develop arthroscopy as a tool for arthritis patients encountered such resistance but were able to persist and now perform any arthroscopy exclusively in a clinic or procedure room setting. Other procedures now performed by rheumatologists - arthrocentesis, joint washout, synovial biopsy, and labial salivary gland biopsy (lip biopsy) -all had their beginnings in the operating room, but no longer require such an environment. Non-surgeons - including rheumatologists - seeking to develop new invasive procedures may continue to utilize the O.R. in early stages when caution and safety concerns demand high level support, and sterile technique. The history of development of these procedures shows a common path to bedside performance. Any O.R. turf touched by a non-surgeon is only temporary.