“I am very pleased and honored to be elected President-elect of the USBJI. I think that USBJI is an outstanding organization and can play a key leadership role in improving the lives of people with musculoskeletal disease, creating innovative programs to advance multi-disciplinary, patient-centered care and promoting advocacy and research. I want to express my appreciation to members of the Board for electing me to this position and look forward to working with everyone to carry out the important mission of the USBJI,” said Dr. Pisetsky.
Dr. Pisetsky, Professor of Medicine and Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, has been active within the USBJI for a number of years. He co-chaired the Summit on Value in Musculoskeletal Care, the Task Force that developed recommendations from that meeting, and he was co-chair of the Summit on Best Practices in Patient-Centered Musculoskeletal Care.
Dr. Pisetsky received his B.A. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College magna cum laude in 1967 and his Ph.D. and M.D. degrees from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1972 and 1973. He was then an intern and resident in Internal Medicine at the Yale-New Haven Hospital from 1973-1975. From 1975-1978, he was a clinical associate at the National Cancer Institute. He joined the faculty of the Duke University Medical Center 1978 as Chief of Rheumatology at the Durham VA Hospital where he has remained since. He became a Professor of Medicine in 1990.
For 35 years, Dr. Pisetsky has been an active investigator in the field of immunology, focusing on the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis and the immunological properties of nuclear macromolecules. His laboratory was among the first to demonstrate the antigenic and mitogenic activity of bacterial DNA and the ability of synthetic oligonucleotides to both stimulate and inhibit immune responses. More recently, he has investigated the immune activities of HMGB1, a nuclear protein with alarmin activity, as well as microparticles. He has published over 350 papers or chapters and has had funding from the NIH, VA as well as foundations. In 2001, he was awarded the Howley Prize from the Arthritis Foundation for his research.
Dr. Pisetsky served as Chief of Rheumatology at the Duke University Medical Center from 1996-2007 and remains as the principal investigator of the NIH-sponsored training program in inflammatory diseases. Dr. Pisetsky has taught extensively at the pre-clinical and clinical level. In his laboratory, Dr. Pisetsky has had over 30 students, M.D. and Ph.D. fellows. Dr. Pisetsky has served on numerous committees for the NIH, VA, American College of Rheumatology (ACR), Arthritis Foundation and the Lupus Research Institute. He is currently a member of the NIH ACTS Study Section as well as Chair of the grant review for the Lupus Research Institute. He was a Section Editor of the Journal of Immunology from 1995-2000 and, from 2000-2005, he served as Editor of Arthritis and Rheumatism, the leading journal in the field of rheumatology. He was the first Physician Editor of The Rheumatologist from 2006-2011.
Release Date:
Monday, June 23, 2014
Rosemont, IL, June 23, 2014 - The United States Bone and Joint Initiative (USBJI) is delighted to announce David Pisetsky, MD, PhD, has been elected President-Elect. Dr. Pisetsky will serve as President from June 2015-2017.