Maura Daly Iversen Named Catherine Worthingham Fellow by APTA
Dr. Iversen
Maura Daly Iversen, PT, DPT, SD, MPH, FNAP, FAPTA, associate editor of The Rheumatologist, was recently named a Catherine Worthingham Fellow—the highest honor among the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) membership categories.
According to the award announcement, Worthingham “motivated others to make an impact within the physical therapy profession. … She was also a visionary who demonstrated leadership across the domains of advocacy, education, practice, and research.” Dr. Iversen received the Worthingham Fellow award because of “her outstanding record of service to the profession via research, education, and practice.”
“We [physical therapists] shouldn’t tell them they have to get out of the chair,” Dr. Iversen says. The key is to develop goals and strategies that personally fit the patient.
Joan M. Von Feldt, MD, Becomes the ACR President-Elect
Dr. Von Feldt
The president-elect of the American College of Rheumatology is Joan M. Von Feldt, MD, MSEd, professor of medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She will assume office on Nov. 10, 2015, at the ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Since joining the ACR in 1991, she’s served on seven committees and groups and been on the Board of Directors since 2009.
She says, “The ACR offers congeniality, leadership training and opportunities to connect with new people, ideas, places and things—education, research, patient care and advocacy for reimbursement issues. It’s wonderful to be part of an organization that shares goals regarding excellence in patient care.
“Being part of the ACR feels good, because you can feel you’re making a difference. It’s big enough to do things, but not so big that you feel insignificant. It has been good to be a member, then a volunteer and now a leader,” Dr. Von Feldt adds.
When asked about what she sees ahead for her role in the ACR, she says, “It’s important for the entire membership to be recognized, from our millennials to our baby boomers and our international members; they have enriched the ACR, and we’ve learned a lot from them.”
Carter Thorne, MD, Named 2015 Distinguished Rheumatologist by Canadian Rheumatology Association
Dr. Thorne
The Canadian Rheumatology Association (CRA) recently honored Carter Thorne, MD, FRCP(C), FACP, chief of the division of rheumatology and director of The Arthritis Program at the Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, naming him the Distinguished Rheumatologist of 2015.
The CRA website states, “Carter combines boundless energy, service and dedication to the rheumatology community with a mantra of making things better.” The award goes to “a clinician who has made an outstanding contribution to rheumatology in Canada through patient care and service and participation in national and international rheumatology organizations and associations.”
“This recognition is truly an honour,” Dr. Thorne said in a press release. “At Southlake, we are committed to delivering the best possible care to our patients. Arthritis can be a challenging and debilitating disease but … we’re able to give people their lives back.”
As director of The Arthritis Program (TAP) at Southlake, Dr. Thorne contributes to arthritis patients’ gaining control of their disease. Dr. Thorne and occupational therapist Ieva Fraser co-founded TAP and continue to work together with what Dr. Thorne called the “most robust interprofessional care team in Canada.” TAP patients have the highest remission rate in Canada, because of the education TAP provides to improve both self-management and treatment/medicine adherence.
Laurie H. Glimcher, MD, Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College, Announces Grants
Dr. Glimcher
Photo courtesy Lisa Berg
Laurie H. Glimcher, MD, is the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City, and provost for medical affairs, Cornell University. Before she took over as dean in January 2012, Dr. Glimcher was the Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she was also director of the Division of Biological Sciences, and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Glimcher spoke to The Rheumatologist about research on Schnurri-3 (SHN3) at the Cornell-affiliated Hospital of Special Surgery (HSS). She and her research team at Harvard had discovered back in 2005 that mice without the SHN3 gene grew new bone. Now HSS researchers are investigating how SHN3 functions in bone formation. Counteracting the bony erosion that occurs in rheumatoid arthritis is just one of the possible outcomes of understanding the SHN3 function. Other applications of the knowledge could be preventing/treating osteoporosis and dealing with bone pain connected to cancer.
Exemplifying the range of her duties at Weill Cornell, and perhaps drawing on her experience as a mother of three children, Dr. Glimcher recently announced the Family Friendly Postdoctoral Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to annually provide about 10 grants of $50,000 for one or two years to outstanding postdoctoral researchers “who are primary caregivers for an infant or child.”
Ann-Marie Lindstrom is an independent writer and editor based in the Tucson, Ariz., area.
