Editors' Note

Dr. Mary Crow is also Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Rheumatology Division at Weill Cornell Medical College and Professor of Immunology in its Graduate School of Medical Sciences. She holds the Joseph P. Routh Endowed Chair in Medicine and is a Senior Scientist and Co-Director of the Mary Kirkland Center for Lupus Research and Director of the Autoimmunity and Inflammation Program in the Research Division of HSS. Crow received her M.D. at Cornell, completed her Internal Medicine and Rheumatology subspecialty training at New York Hospital and HSS, and completed her postdoctoral research training at Rockefeller University in the laboratory of Dr. Henry Kunkel.

Because HSS is a unique hospital with a focus on musculoskeletal disorders, we’re in a special place to make a real impact on patient care and the field of rheumatology. We also have a rare coherence between the research and clinical sides of academic medicine.

We consider ourselves leaders in the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of some of the most complex diseases that fall under the umbrella of rheumatology, which encompasses many diseases, including systemic autoimmune diseases such as lupus, scleroderma, and rheumatoid arthritis.

HSS has put a great deal of energy and resources into identifying novel targets for therapy and toward understanding the molecular basis of the underlying immune system disorders. We invite patients to participate in translational research studies to determine how those potential targets for therapy might be taken forward into drug development programs.

When I was a fellow in training, more than 25 years ago, patients would sometimes die of rheumatoid arthritis, or be confined to wheelchairs. We rarely see that level of disability today.•