Medal for Excellence Awarded to Graciela Alarcón, MD
Graciela (Chela) S. Alarcón, MD, MPH, is the emeritus Jane Knight Lowe Chair of Medicine in Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and a professor of medicine (emeritus) at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), Lima, Perú, her alma mater. Last fall, she received the Peruvian Society of Rheumatology’s Gold Medal for Excellence. Although she has continually maintained ties with her native country and with several Latin American lupus cohorts and academic consortia, the award was “totally unexpected,” she says.
After her post-graduate training at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, and Baltimore City Hospital (now known as the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center), Dr. Alarcón returned to Perú and started the first program in Rheumatology at UPCH. In 1980, she moved to UAB to continue her academic career, delving mainly into lupus research. In the early 1990s, she began collaborating with the Grupo Latino Americano de Estudio de Lupus (GLADEL), a collaboration that continues to flourish. It was through her contacts with GLADEL researchers, and research grants that she was able to bring a good number of Latin American fellows to UAB to train in lupus research under her leadership.
Dr. Alarcón was also a prime mover in establishing the LUMINA cohort with colleagues John D. Reveille, MD, professor and vice chair of the Division of Rheumatology at the John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Medical School at UT Health, Houston, and Luis M. Vilá, MD, Professor of Medicine and chief of the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Puerto Rico, San Juan. In concert with her permanent ties with UAB and GLADEL investigators, Dr. Alarcón continues to help mine the rich databases of both the LUMINA and GLADEL cohorts.
She is also an emeritus member of the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics and was the senior author of a recent publication on steroids and damage in patients with lupus.
In the early to mid-1990s, she served as editor of Arthritis Care & Research, improving the journal’s reach and impact factor; at present, she is the editor in chief of the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology.
Now living in California’s Bay Area, Dr. Alarcón says her continued connections with former and current fellows are very rewarding. Her relationships with Latin American colleagues “mean a lot to me, because I’m giving back to my continent and to my country, and serving them, particularly my country, for all it did for me when I was young.”
Amish J. Dave, MD, MPH, Recognized as Early Career Member of the Year by Washington State Medical Association
Amish J. Dave, MD, MPH, a rheumatologist at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, Seattle, says he loves “the mystery-solving aspect of rheumatology, and being able to help patients as a ‘primary care doctor for people with autoimmune diseases.’” In recognition of his service to the Washington State Medical Association’s early career members, he was awarded the society’s Early Career Member of the Year Award in September, 2021.
Dr. Dave received his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 2010 and earned his Master in Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, in 2016. He takes a wide view of medicine and equity in healthcare, serving on multiple boards and committees as a professional and public advocate. He has been the chair of the Public Health Committee for the King County Medical Society for five years. He is a member of the Washington State Medical Association Board, and represents the Washington Executive Council on the American College of Physicians Board.
Dr. Dave is passionate about his public advocacy work. His work with the King County Medical Society’s Public Health Committee has been focused on developing lead poisoning screening for children in Washington, accompanied by continuing education programs on lead poisoning for healthcare professionals. He has also been involved in gun violence prevention, working with legislators and policy experts through a firearm safety coalition, and development of continuing medical education on diversity and equity in healthcare. In 2020, Dr. Dave launched a Rheumatology 101 continuing education course geared toward primary care physicians in Washington’s underserved areas, began in 2020 and was repeated in March 2022.
As an alternate delegate to the American Medical Association (AMA) from Washington, he’s been involved in many discussions regarding the response to the pandemic. His activism has extended to writing editorials regarding reliable information on COVID‑19 for local newspapers, such as the Seattle Times, and The Rheumatologist.
“We [rheumatologists] serve a major role in helping people with autoimmune and arthritic diseases, but I also think we have to serve as public advocates, especially right now when there’s so much disinformation going around,” he notes. Working for change at the legislative and public affairs levels has brought home many lessons. “I think I’ve learned to be less fiery, and to recognize that long-term effective change requires understanding and research into topics that might be unfamiliar. It also means that although we rheumatologists have a lot of knowledge, we need to tailor information appropriately [to our audience].”
Behnam Khaleghi, MD, Serves as a Member of Dean’s Leadership Council at UCI School of Biological Sciences
A rheumatologist in private practice at Pacific Rheumatology Medical Center, San Francisco, Behnam Khaleghi, MD, has now been a member of the Dean’s Leadership Council at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), School of Biological Sciences for a year. The council, led by Dean Frank LaFerla, PhD, functions as the primary community and industrial link for the UCI School of Biological Sciences. Dr. Khaleghi joined that body in the spring of 2021. The experience, he says, “has been very informative, especially since my membership took place during the pandemic. We have experts as members who share good data and discuss how to plan and work for the future.”
Dr. Khaleghi, whose father was an orthopedic surgeon in Iran, earned his medical degree at Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran. He completed an internal medicine residency at St. Barnabas Hospital, The Bronx, New York, and his rheumatology fellowship at Cooper University Hospital, Camden, N.J. He and his wife settled in Orange County, Calif., in 2011 when he set up his practice. He now has offices in Tustin, Orange and Laguna Hills, Calif.
Building a practice from the ground up, Dr. Khaleghi notes, has required concerted effort and acquisition of business acumen, which are not necessarily a part of standard medical education. “Starting in private practice is always challenging,” he notes, but he has steadily built a dedicated team.
Due to the wide scope of rheumatologic practice, with the involvement of multiple organs and multiple systems, it’s important to establish collaborations with other specialists, he says, such as pulmonologists, dermatologists and neurologists. Equally important is the ability to effectively listen to, and communicate clearly with, patients.
“The more the patient knows about their condition, the more they understand what to expect, the better able to make decisions they are. To be a good rheumatologist, you have to be patient and a good listener,” Dr. Khaleghi says.
The practice has steadily grown over 11 years, and Dr. Khaleghi was awarded congressional recognition for outstanding and invaluable service to the community last summer by U.S. Rep. Ken Calvert at a ceremony in Riverside, Calif.
Gretchen Henkel is a health and medical journalist based in California.
