TR: What other achievements from your previous roles with the ACR would you like to highlight?
Dr. Harvey: Starting with my work on the GAC, through my time on the Board of Directors and the quality-measure work in the registry that I just mentioned, the ACR has done an amazing job maturing its ability to advocate for and protect the vibrancy of rheumatologic practice. Besides building more useful quality measures, we’ve been able to influence the way that the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) programs have been shaped as they relate to rheumatology. That has helped rheumatologists sustain their practices more effectively.
TR: What would you like to share about yourself to help members get to know you a bit better?
Dr. Harvey: There are a couple things I can share. One is that community is important to me, partly because I’m from a pretty small town—born and raised in Hershey, Pa.—and small towns thrive on a sense of community. Even being located in a bigger city like Boston now, I still find that community is important.
The second thing I’ll mention also has to do with community. My father immigrated to this country, and I’m the product of an interracial marriage. That has had some interesting impacts on me; I have a strong sense that our community doesn’t stop at our country borders; it stretches to rheumatologists and other related professionals who are working all over the world on the same challenges we are. I see the value of that feeling of belonging from my own personal experience, and I believe it is important to help all of our members feel supported by one another. These are some of the reasons why I work so hard to instill a sense of community in the ACR.
Leslie Mertz, PhD, is a freelance science journalist based in northern Michigan.
