The ACR Honors Contributions to Rheumatology

Hardly, if the past 30 years of her private practice are any indication. Dr. Moynihan graduated from Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia in 1977 and did her residency and fellowship at Philadelphia hospitals. She then launched her private practice in the city’s New Jersey suburbs. She has been an active ACR member since, serving on multiple committees and as the alternate American Medical Association (AMA) delegate for the College at AMA national meetings. In 1998, she was selected for the ACR Paulding Phelps Award. Four years ago, she received the Medical Executive Award from the Edward J. Ill Medical Foundation.

Q: What does an award like this mean to you in terms of your legacy?

A: I’m looking at it more or less as a thank you. I’m not looking at it as any kind of legacy. The people who do all the academic work in the College probably are the ones who leave legacies. I’m just a clinician in the trenches. This, to me, is just an organization saying thank you for all the hours.

Q: Are you proud to be a “just a clinician”?

A: It’s a very nice thing for the organization to recognize people who have devoted a lot of time without any remuneration. It’s nice to be recognized in a formal way.

Q: As a community physician, you see the need for more rheumatologists. Is it daunting to you to know there are not enough physicians doing the job?

A: It’s going to be a huge issue as we step forward. Rheumatology is probably on the bottom of anybody’s list as a specialty to save unless you are a rheumatologist. People don’t always understand the need for them…it makes me concerned about when I could possibly even retire, because I wouldn’t know where to send the [patients] I have now.

ACR Distinguished Fellowship Program Director

Ronald Anderson, MD
Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston; Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston

Background: When Dr. Anderson joined Harvard Medical School’s faculty in 1971 to create a teaching program in rheumatology at Robert Breck Brigham and Peter Bent Brigham Hospitals, there were neither training guidelines nor a specialty board for the nascent field. Now he is the inaugural recipient of the Distinguished Fellowship Program Director’s Award. Between 1971 and 2004, as director of clinical training, he crafted and led programs that have trained more than 150 rheumatologists. Those physicians have served on the faculty of more than 20 medical schools, 26 have become full professors of medicine, and 13 have gone on to serve as training program directors themselves. Since relinquishing his administrative responsibilities, he has continued to practice and teach at the same level. He has received multiple teaching awards, the Marian Ropes Award given by the Arthritis Foundation, and has been recognized as a Master by the ACR.