2013 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting: Rheumatologists In the Spotlight

An ACR member since 1987, he previously received the ACR’s Henry Kunkel Young Investigator Award.

Q: What advice do you have for those considering a career in clinical research?

A: Try to acquire expertise in cutting-edge clinical research techniques, so as to be able to answer questions as rigorously as possible. Also, for rheumatologists who work primarily as clinicians but would like to engage in research, there are a lot of wonderful opportunities for collaboration. We researchers need the advice and perspectives of excellent clinicians about the most important problems they face.

Q: What is most satisfying about your research?

A: All researchers love to see the data as they come in, after you have worked really hard to produce them. It’s fun and exhilarating. We have done a lot of work on the relationship between volume and outcome of different orthopedic surgeries. I think some of the most exciting moments were seeing the very first printouts that showed these relationships that we expected, and the data actually showed them to be true.

Q: What does this award mean to you?

A: I find the most satisfying parts of my career have been working with young people, helping them advance their careers and knowledge. This award reminds me of how fortunate I have been, and that those who have enjoyed successes have a responsibility to share their insights with the next generation of investigators.

Dr. Davidson

ACR Distinguished Basic Investigator Award

Anne Davidson, MBBS

Professor, Molecular Medicine, Hofstra-North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, Hempstead, N.Y.; Investigator, Autoimmunity and Musculoskeletal Diseases Center, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, N.Y.

Background: Dr. Davidson’s route to rheumatology started in her native Australia. She received her medical degree from the University of Melbourne and completed her residency at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. She did her rheumatology fellowship at Monash University in Melbourne, but decided she wanted laboratory experience and came to New York to work in the lab of Betty Diamond.

That was 1984, and she’s still in Manhattan.

“The career opportunities were much better in New York,” she says. “And then I met my husband, and once that happened, it became a whole different ballgame in terms of where we were going to live.”

Staying appears to have been the right choice. Dr. Davidson’s award-winning research has focused on pathogenesis of and therapy for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). More recently, she has worked on mechanisms of inflammation with the SLE kidney. Dr. Davidson is on the medical advisory board for the New York SLE Foundation and a standing member of the grant-review committee of the Lupus Research Institute. She is a past winner of both the Kirkland Scholars Award and the Dubois Award.