Dr. Michelle Petri: A Guiding Light for Patients with Lupus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) affects a substantial number of patients worldwide, with an estimated prevalence in North America of 241 per 100,000 people.¹ The morbidity and mortality associated with the condition can be significant, and thus research on this disease continues to be of utmost importance. The story of one of the world’s leading experts on lupus—Michelle Petri, MD, MPH, MACR—is fascinating and highlights the role that mentorship and collaboration can play in shaping an outstanding research and clinical career.

Dr. Petri

Dr. Petri completed her medical degree at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., followed by a medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and a rheumatology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

Mentors

Early in the course of her training, Dr. Petri encountered several physicians who left an indelible imprint on the way in which she thinks about medicine.

“My most important clinical mentor,” she says, “was Peter Singleton, MD, DSc, FACR, when he was chief of rheumatology at Letterman Army Medical Center, [San Francisco]. He was a wonderful teacher and mentor—and the first to tell me to find a niche, an area that would be mine. He was such a superb clinician—he could go into a room and absolutely inspire a fibromyalgia patient to adopt exercise. I have never forgotten the day I got a phone call from a hospital resident who told me Peter had just died and that Peter had given him instructions to tell me.

“Peter, if I had known how sick you were I would have come to say goodbye and thank you.”

Another role model for Dr. Petri was John Mills, MD, a widely respected rheumatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Petri recalls how Dr. Mills allowed her to spend several weeks in his clinic and, as she saw firsthand, he examined each patient in a detailed and meticulous manner, palpating for splenomegaly and other subtle findings of disease. Dr. Mills was generous with his time and teaching, and Dr. Petri notes, “I now understand how having me at his side slowed him up; teaching takes time.”

Dr. Petri arrived at Johns Hopkins in 1986 and it was in Baltimore that she worked with Marc Hochberg, MD, MPH, MACP, MACR. Dr. Hochberg, who is now head of the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, demonstrated the importance of understanding epidemiology and statistics—including the concepts of confounding, interaction, etc.—and how such knowledge could improve the scope and quality of research work. As Dr. Petri recalls, “That was my inspiration to get a Master of Public Health during weekends and evenings in Washington, D.C. While I attended classes on weekends, my daughter Megan would color quietly in the back of the auditorium.