TR: It sounds like your jobs with HSS and Cornell keep you plenty busy. Why did you decide to add the role of editor in chief of A&R to your list of things to do?
Dr. Bridges: As I mentioned, I’ve always been very devoted to ACR. That had its start when I was a junior faculty member, and someone suggested I might want to start reviewing articles for A&R. It sounded like fun, so I did. That got me very interested in the journal. In fact, the first ACR committee I ever served on was the Committee on Journal Publications. Through that committee, I got to meet A&R’s editors, and it was great. I have to say, I idolized them. It was a wonderful experience getting to know them.
Dr. Bridges reviews an X-ray.
Then in 2010, Joan M. Bathon, MD, was named to a five-year term as editor in chief of A&R. [Editor’s note: Dr. Bathon is a professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York.] Joan and I had collaborated previously quite a bit, and she asked me to be a co-editor under her, and I quickly accepted. I really enjoyed that role. When Richard Bucala, MD, PhD, became the next editor in chief of A&R, he asked me to stay on as co-editor, and I was delighted to do it. [Editor’s note: Dr. Bucala is the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine, a professor of pathology, epidemiology and public health, chief of the Department of Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology at Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; and rheumatologist in chief of the Yale New Haven Health system.] In all, I was co-editor of A&R for seven years, but then had to step down when I became vice president of the Rheumatology Research Foundation in 2017.
When Rick’s five-year term as editor in chief concluded, I was planning my move to HSS, so the timing wasn’t right for me to apply. But then this year when the current editor in chief, Daniel H. Solomon, MD, MPH, was finishing up his five-year term, I gave it serious thought, and discussed it with both him and Rick. They gave me a lot of great advice, and I was really happy to apply for the position. [Editor’s note: Daniel H. Solomon, MD, MPH, is professor of rheumatology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and Matthew H. Liang Distinguished Chair in Arthritis and Population Health in Rheumatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.]
