Standing committee on epidemiology and health services research.

At the last EULAR congress in Nice this standing committee held an educational symposium on “Clinical Epidemiology in Practice”. This initiative was very well received and highly appreciated by the participants. Therefore, the committee organised a similar symposium at this congress. The standing committee will together with the standing committee chairmen of “Education and Training” (Professor A Woolf) and “International Clinical Studies, including Clinical Trials” (Professor P van Riel) provide a course on Clinical Epidemiology, including clinical trials and selected topics in Bucharest, Romania from 29 September to 5 October 2001. Currently, the maximum number of participants for these small group tutorials is 40 people from eastern European countries, which has almost been reached. The standing committee has started its own web site. Electronic communication will facilitate contact between members of the committee, and the committee is still willing and able to co-opt interested people eager to participate in activities of the standing committee. Finally, the committee has prepared a protocol to study and compare the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthropathies in many EULAR countries following a successful French initiative (Professor F Guillemin). The feasibility of this study was assessed last year. Now EULAR has provided financial support to enable the first phase of this project to be started by members of the standing committee. The time of the committee will be devoted almost completely to implementation of this study. You will definitely hear more about this project next year at the EULAR Congress in Stockholm, Sweden.