“We want to reach medical students and residents who may be interested in rheumatology, and scientists in other fields who may not receive our journals on a monthly basis in their email inboxes,” says Dr. Assassi. “Ultimately, the objective of all our efforts is to serve ACR and ARP members, the scientific community and patients, in order to improve our care of rheumatic diseases.”
As chair, he also hopes to work with the journals’ editorial boards to improve the availability of raw datasets to other investigators, noting, “Data sharing would be of tremendous benefit to the scientific community since we are often dealing with rare diseases.”
A Personal Note
When he’s not seeing patients, teaching medical students, directing translational research workshops for colleagues or conducting his own research, Dr. Assassi enjoys running, reading (or listening to) books—he is part of a book club—and spending time with his wife and two young boys.
“They keep me busy,” he says.
Kelly April Tyrrell writes about health, science and health policy. She lives in Madison, Wis.
