Future cooperation in the field of rheumatoid arthritis and related diseases

This Memorandum discusses two areas of research into rheumatic disease in which it is considered international cooperation would be valuable. These are: (a) standardization and cooperative evaluation of immunological tests used in diagnosis, clinico-pathological assessment, and epidemiological work; and (b) standardization and cooperative assessment of criteria for application to disease classification, evaluation of therapeutic agents, epidemiological studies, and public health programmes.