2013 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting: Health Professionals In the Spotlight

In particular, Dr. Gignac’s work focuses on helping patients continue to work despite the severity of their condition. She became co-scientific director of the Canadian Arthritis Network in 2008. She also chairs the advisory board for the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She has won several Canadian health awards, including a 2013 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award from the Governor General’s office.

Q: What does this award say to you in terms of validation of your work?

A: I think the word validation is perfect for this. Funding is very difficult for researchers these days. I know a lot of young researchers are thinking twice about staying in the area. I think getting something like this, it validates the area of research that you work in. I went into this area because I thought there were important questions that needed to be answered, and I think that winning this gives me the ability to say that this is the right path, this is important.

Q: How do you encourage younger physicians, researchers, and scientists to get into this knowing that it’s a rocky road?

A: I really believe that we need to train a different type of researcher. I encourage trainees to take advantage of opportunities to work with stakeholders, clinicians, people with arthritis. You can get their insights right at the beginning of your research so that it is more relevant to the groups that you want to help upfront, and you learn from that. I think that really helps researchers to be smarter about their grants, to have a goal, to be able to know where they plan to go with the research. The days of “we’ll explore something for the sake of exploring it” are pretty much over. You really have to have a more targeted research question, and I think it’s really all about thinking about research teams to move research forward.

Q: With a health-psychology background, did you expect your career to focus on rheumatology?

A: When I started expanding it into employment, that’s when I really noticed that people’s heads were turning, and there seemed to be a real gap here. At that point, I felt that this is probably the area I should stay in.

Dr. LaValley

ARHP Master Educator Award

Michael LaValley, PhD

Professor of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston