Rheumatoid arthritis treatment is a fast changing and advancing area. Current drugs are now better utilized and new medications continue to be developed. The main challenge is to identify which patients are responding to treatment and to objectively quantify their response or nonresponse. There is a need for more rheumatologists to pursue use of an objective assessment tool in routine clinical care. Therefore, knowledge of the various tools available to rheumatologists in clinical trials and routine care and their practical differences is important to progress in patient evaluation and management. The tool that is easiest for both the patient and the physician to use and that still provides important treatment response and prognostic information has the best chance to be consistently and successfully applied by busy clinicians.