WASHINGTON—A recently begun Department of Veterans Affairs cooperative study is pitting different pharmaceutical treatments for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) against each other and promises to take a comprehensive look at what drugs work in what combination for which patients in the hope of improving RA therapy across the board.

WASHINGTON—At least 128 Army soldiers took their own lives in 2008, the highest number since the Army began tracking suicide rates nearly 30 years ago, military offi cials said in January.

Warfare has a way of generating new medical challenges for our military community, due to combat and exposure to stressful environments not typically experienced in ordinary life.

WASHINGTON—How likely is it that underserved patients lacking health care, who frequently go untreated for chronic diseases, would ever see a rheumatologist? How about seeing one at no charge? Or seeing a clinician being trained at the National Institutes of Health?

WASHINGTON—Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an auto-immune disease that causes swelling of the joints and surrounding tissue. Left untreated, RA can badly damage joints to the point where they no longer function.