The commonalities across the numerous OA studies in which Dr. Hochberg has been involved have been, he says, “to try and identify modifiable risk factors for the development and structural progression of osteoarthritis.” Most cohorts, he points out, have data on hand and knee OA, while hip data were gathered in studies of osteoporotic fractures. Involvement with hip data took place when he and Sheri Tepper looked at the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (also known as NHANES-I) data, which included hip radiographs. With such work as the JoCo OA and the Baltimore Clinical Centers of the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures and Osteoarthritis Initiative, of which he’s been director for the past 15 and nine years, respectively, he and various collaborators have been able to examine the same joints in different cohorts to validate findings from one to the other.
Dr. Hochberg has also been involved since 1991 with the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) and is presently collaborating with Drs. Altman, Jordan and Simon to revise the OARSI recommendations for conducting clinical trials in OA. Dr. Simon notes that in the collaborative environment, Dr. Hochberg “tends to include people in the thinking about his work rather than being a ‘solitarian’ analyst. He enjoys the perspective of working with groups of people, and he searches out other people’s opinions, which enriches—rather than minimizes—the work that he produces.”
‘Not only is Marc very bright, but he’s able to take in a lot about the field & bring a big tent in understanding to the discussion at hand.’
A Generous Mentor
Vicki L. Star, MD, FACR, is director of medical affairs for Merck & Co. and based in North Wales, Pa. She began her fellowship in rheumatology at the University of Maryland the year that Dr. Hochberg moved to that institution. Following that fellowship, she went on to a faculty position at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Now deeply involved in clinical research on the pharmacology side, she still considers Dr. Hochberg a mentor: “He’s one of those rare people you can really open up to,” she says. “I still discuss ideas with him, and we carve out time to meet at every national meeting.”
While under Dr. Hochberg’s supervision at the University of Maryland, Dr. Star recalls that it was his enthusiasm for the public health and epidemiological aspects of rheumatology that sparked her interest in osteoporosis and other inflammatory disorders. Another quality she admires in Dr. Hochberg: “He is extremely generous as far as giving his time to people, making sure that people are engulfed in whatever the clinical research is and that they fully understand everything. He makes sure that all those involved in a project receive their accolades; he does not want to take full credit for anything. That’s uncommon for a researcher.”
The UK & Beyond
Besides his intense academic research and participation in several national organizations, Dr. Hochberg is active in international research initiatives. He traces this involvement back to a three-month faculty exchange in 1987, when he was a senior lecturer in the Department of Community Medicine at St. Thomas’s Hospitals in London. That led to a visit by Tim Spector, MB, MSc, MD, to Johns Hopkins as a postdoctoral fellow in 1988. For more than 25 years, Drs. Hochberg and Spector have been collaborators as well as friends. Dr. Spector now directs the Twin Research Unit in the UK and the Treat OA Consortium.
