This month, the ACR ushers in its new president, David Daikh, MD, PhD. Dr. Daikh serves as the director of the Rheumatology Fellowship Training Program at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and as chief of the Rheumatology Division at the SFVA Medical Center, where he directs the Rheumatology Clinic. He graduated from the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, Portland, in 1991. He completed his residency in 1994 and his fellowship in 1997, both at UCSF. Dr. Daikh’s research has focused on immune mechanisms of rheumatic disease, and he oversees a core laboratory that serves a number of investigators at UCSF.
David Daikh, MD, PhD
The Rheumatologist (TR) recently learned more about the organization’s new president and how he envisions the ACR evolving in the coming year.
TR: You, your younger brother and your cousin are all rheumatologists. What attracted you to the field?
Dr. Daikh: Originally, I was going to be a neurologist. I was doing neuroscience research and thought the brain was the last frontier. I was really interested in the mind–body connection. When I got in the wards and started seeing patients, I realized that I wanted to be more general than addressing only one system.
Then I did an elective in rheumatology. I was initially attracted by the Sherlockian aspect of the specialty. I was intrigued by the need to be a detective and use my clinical examination skills to come to a diagnosis. You have to really dig and understand the patient in many aspects. There are so many unknown questions that need to be asked, just as there is so much still to be understood about autoimmunity and autoimmune disease.
I was also attracted to the opportunity to care for patients over long periods of time and greatly impressed by the kindness and collegiality of rheumatologists. Rheumatologists are really kind people, and an interesting group. At my medical school, the first rheumatologists who left lasting impressions were people like Steve Campbell, Jim Rosenbaum and Michael Davies, all of whom were great clinicians and teachers.
TR: You’ve served in various roles at the ACR over the past 15 years. Is being president simply a natural progression, a next step forward?
Dr. Daikh: I wanted to get involved in the field and profession beyond my own institution. As a fellow, I really admired many clinical and scientific leaders in our field who were involved in the ACR. I was involved with the Committee on Rheumatology Training and Workforce Issues for several years and the Scientific Advisory Council of the Rheumatology Research Foundation, and also served as vice president, and then president of the Rheumatology Research Foundation. Remaining engaged with the College has been very enjoyable and rewarding, and I am truly honored to serve as president of the organization.
Note to President Dr. Daikh
Congratulations!
Sounds good!
I’m suggesting and requesting the following priorities for ACR and praying for your help
with
1) Help to maintain and increase reimbursement for clinical Rheumatology services by third party payers
2) Promote legislation/ guidelines to vastly reduce or eliminate the current arduous pharma drug pre- approval processes which require inordinate human resource effort, time and cost, approaching the brink of unsustainable practice survival as new biologics and other expensive drugs are added to our armamentarium
2) More actively promote ACR Member contribution to RheumPAC
-make it easier to join with frequent reminders and email blasts touting the obvious rationale for joining
3) Need legislation to rein in drug costs and eliminate the process that led to the hike in colchicine pricing
4) Actively develop more educational offerings to improve ACR Members’ knowledge and familiarity with Integrative medicine as it relates to Rheumatology patient care. Acknowledge that our patients are availing themselves of Integrative modalities in large numbers. It behooves us to improve our own understanding of such, as there is ample evidence to support many of these and we should be versed at applying them whenever clinically indicated to
enhance patient outcomes which those of us who incorporate them see on a daily basis. By the way they tend less costly and associated with less adverse event potential than equivalent pharma drug alternatives, i.e. breathing meditation vs Xanax. If you take the time to do literature searches it will become clear that many complementary modalities have just as good “evidence” as many pharma drugs we use which are heavily promoted by respective manufacturers.
Thank you!
Irene S. Kazmers MD FACP
Northern Michigan Rheumatology
Petoskey MI
Board Certifications
ABIM: Internal Medicine, Rheumatology, and Geriatric Medicine
and
American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine
Grad UCSF School of Medicine 1976
I studied and work seven years later at rheumatology department I wish to attend the San Diego meeting but American embassy’s not give visa even I am presenter and I have all documents plz. Help me to attend next conference Thanks a lot
I forwarded your comment to the ACR and received this response: “The ACR supports the open interchange among clinicians, scientists, and students from around the world for the purposes of education, training, scientific work, and provision of healthcare, and we sincerely regret you were not successful in obtaining a visa to attend the 2017 Annual Meeting. You will be able to create a letter of invitation to attend the 2018 Annual Meeting using our online form in March 2018. In the meantime, the information on this page may be helpful: https://www.rheumatology.org/Annual-Meeting/International-Attendees.”
Thank you I will prepare all documents and certificates and follow the instructions given to me by the site and I will do my best to be present on June 2018 in California
Dear Dr Daikh,
I am a rheumatologist from Malaysia and have the problem to attend ACR meetings because of funding problems. May I suggest that ACR meetings be live web stream and you can charge us the registration fees and thus help us save for hotel and flights prices. I hope you can consider this suggestion to ensure more members from this region and in the long run do make profit as well.
Check out the streaming options at ACR Beyond.