[Management of rheumatoid patients by rheumatologists in a large metropolitan area]

Five outpatients clinics and four private practices in Berlin have participated in a uniform outpatient register in 1992. This documentation has been used since 1993 in all of the 21 rheumacenters funded by the Federal Minister of Health. It gives information on diagnoses, ways of admission, therapies, complaints as well as functional and socioeconomic status of the patients. Data of about 3000 patients pertaining to earliness of admission, therapies, work disability, and correlations of education and prognosis of R.A. are reported.