Editorial introductions

Abstract

Current Opinion in Rheumatology was launched in 1989. It is one of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The field of Rheumatology is divided into 15 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Journal's Section Editors for this issue. SECTION EDITORS Kenneth SaagKenneth SaagKenneth Saag, MD, MSc, is Jane Knight Lowe Professor of Medicine, Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in Birmingham, Alabama and Professor of Epidemiology, at the UAB School of Public Health. Dr Saag is a native of Chicago, following studies in engineering at the University of Michigan, he returned to Chicago for medical school and Internal Medicine Residency at Northwestern University. He then traveled to the University of Iowa for his rheumatology and epidemiology training and remained on the faculty there until moving to UAB in 1998. Dr Saag is the founding Director of the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality Deep South Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics, the UAB Center of Research Translation in Gout and Hyperuricemia, and the UAB Outcomes Research Center. He also serves as a Vice Chair for the UAB Department of Medicine. He has published over 230 peer reviewed manuscripts; has also authored more than 100 reviews, editorials, and book chapters. Recently he published the first edition of the clinical handbook Diagnosis and Management of Osteoporosis. Dr Saag is on the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the Gout and Uric Acid Society Board of Directors and he also serves as Vice President on the Board of Trustees of the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Ann K. RosenthalAnn K. RosenthalDr Rosenthal is the Will and Cava Ross Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Rheumatology Division at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr Rosenthal received her MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital and the University of Rochester. She received her rheumatology training at the Medical College of Wisconsin where she had the privilege of working with Dr Lawrence M. Ryan, a major figure in the field of calcium-crystal arthritis. This fostered her interest in crystal arthritis and since then her work has largely centered on calcium pyrophosphate deposition (CPPD) and pathologic calcification in cartilage. Her work has been funded by the Veteran's Administration Research Service and the National Institutes of Health since 1991 and includes bench research as well as clinical trials. Her additional research interests include osteoarthritis, gout and musculoskeletal complications of diabetes. She is the author of over 80 original publications, numerous chapters and invited reviews, and has spoken at many national and international meetings. Dr Rosenthal maintains an active clinical practice, and has been elected to Best Doctors yearly since 1998. She is an elected fellow of the American College of Physicians. She is the recipient of numerous teaching awards. She is currently the Vice Chair for Faculty Development in the Department of Medicine and the medical director of the Zablocki VA Translational Research Center, a key component of the Clinical Translational Science Institute. Iain McInnesIain McInnesIain McInnes is an international authority on the pathogenesis and treatment of inflammatory arthritis. His early studies identified the expression/functional importance of several novel cytokines in rheumatoid arthritis synovitis. Subsequent investigations identified numerous novel regulators of synovial cytokine production that essentially drive the chronicity of the condition. Parallel studies explore mechanisms underpinning vascular co-morbidity in autoimmune disease. Dr McInnes has published extensively in, and edited, journals of high impact. He is active in the national academic community serving on numerous grant funding panels. He is Director of the Scottish Clinical Pharmacology and Pathology Training Programme (MRC) and Deputy Director of the Scottish Translational Medicine Initiative. He is the Director of the Arthritis Research UK Rheumatoid Arthritis Pathogenesis Centre of Excellence and moreover has created the GLAZgo Discovery Centre in a unique discovery platform to innovate new drug development. He has participated extensively in the workings of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) – formerly as Chair of the Scientific Committee of EULAR, as Chairman of the European Foreum and now as Treasurer of EULAR. He has received numerous invited lectureships and professorships. He was elected FRSE in 2008, and FMedSci in 2012.