By CTJRRIER MCEWEN The author, who was a member of a Le autor esseva membro de un gruppo scientific exchange team which visited scientific de excambio visitante le the U.S.S.R. in September and October U.R.S.S. in septembre e octobre 1962. 1962, reports his observations made Ille reporta le observationes que ille during visits to rheumatologic research faceva in le curso de visitas in institutos institutes and laboratories in Moscow, de recerca rheumatologic e lor labora-Leningrad and Kiev. torios in Moscova, Leningrad, e Kiev. URING the period September 26 to October 13, 1960, the author had D the privilege of being a member of a scientific exchange team which visited the U.S.S.R. under the auspices of the United States Department of State and Public Health Service. The observations which follow are based on the experiences of that trip. When this manuscript was completed it was held because of uncertainty as to the accuracy of some of the details. However, on his trip to the United States in December 1962, Academician A.l.
Nesterov kindly read the manuscript and made revisions and corrections. It is, therefore, submitted with confidence as to its accuracy and with thanks to Professor Nesterov for his assistance.
Organization
Research, teaching and patient care in the field of Rheumatic Diseases throughout the U.S.S.R. are coordinated and controlled by an' All-Union Committee responsible jointly to the Ministry of Health and the Academy of Medical Sciences. Academician A.I. Nesterov serves as Chairman of this committee and Professor Margarita Astapenko, of the former's staff, as Secretary. The functionk of the Committee include the establishment of a nomenclature and classification of rheumatic diseases, the setting of standards for diagnosis and treatment, and the review and coordination of all research on arthritis and rheumatism throughout the U.S.S.R. The committee controls research also in the sense of deciding what work is to be done.
Main activity in' research on rheumatic diseases is centered in the Institute of Rheumatism in Moscow, but there are smaller research units in other cities of which we visited several in Leningrad and Kiev. These will be described briefly below.
Care of Patients
Since our mission was concerned with research and time was limited, we did not visit any of the general hospitals or out-patient clinics. However, From the Department of Medicine and the Rheumatic Diseaszs Study Group, N e w York These obseroations were made possible by Grant A-3636 from USPHS.