An Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment Evaluation Registry (ERATER) was established in 2001 to enroll patients with a disease duration of 3 years or less, in order to analyze treatment patterns in an era of biological therapies and to study the long-term outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Patients were assessed at baseline according to a standard protocol to evaluate their rheumatoid arthritis (SPERA). Similar data from earlier cohorts with RA in the same community will allow for comparisons with treatments and outcomes from previous decades. This essay describes the background regarding the identification of the cohort, methods for data collection, and observations to date.