President’s Corner: ACR Initiatives Support Research at Every Level

Poster hall, ACR Convergence 2024. (Click to enlarge.)

For me, few ACR events bring home our connection as a rheumatology community more than our annual meeting, ACR Convergence. In addition to its many important opportunities for networking and education, one aspect of the meeting that always inspires me is the research. Research represents one of the three priorities of my presidential term because of its centrality to innovations that can improve the lives of our patients. The research spectrum is diverse and includes clinical, translational, basic science and health services disciplines, all of which are interconnected and essential. Many critical steps are involved in the effective conduct of all research: training people to perform the research, resources to support it, funding to conduct it and avenues to disseminate the results where they may impact clinical practice and stimulate the next level of investigation. The ACR recognizes the important role that each step plays in the research process and supports research of all disciplines through a diverse range of initiatives.

Learning Research

Conducting research is an acquired skill, and mentorship and learning occur throughout one’s career. The ACR/ARP Committee on Research (COR) has developed a wide range of initiatives to support the investigational pipeline:

• Creating Adult Rheumatology Mentorship in Academia (CARMA) is a mentoring program to support early career investigators. Through this program, junior investigators are matched with established rheumatologists to enhance decision making and satisfaction as they transition to independence after fellowship;
• Rheuminations on Research Careers is a virtual program that provides an opportunity for researchers at all career levels to discuss successes and challenges in an environment that encourages constructive feedback and shared experiences;
• The Rheumatology Research Workshop, next scheduled for spring 2025, is a two-day, in-person workshop that promotes interaction among rheumatology trainees, early career investigators and established investigators to foster collaboration and facilitate career mentoring;
• At ACR Convergence, the Basic & Clinical Research Conference is offered as a pre-meeting course and provides valuable opportunities for networking and idea generation between investigators of all experience levels; and
• The COR’s Early Career Investigator Subcommittee organizes a Meet the Funders program at ACR Convergence, where early career investigators can learn more about research opportunities, grant applications and funding strategies.

Resources for Research

The RISE registry is the first and largest electronic health record (EHR) enabled rheumatology registry in the U.S. Overseen by the ACR Committee on Registries and Health Information Technology, RISE is a repository of clinical information that is collected during routine clinical care through EHR systems. To date, RISE data represent 3,524,519 patients with 37,755,997 individual encounters. RISE not only assists clinicians in meeting government-mandated reporting requirements, but it also provides a rich source of data that can be used to answer novel research questions. Information from RISE has been used in more than 80 research studies so far.

Participation in RISE is available to ACR/ARP members and their practices as a free member benefit. It can be used seamlessly for completing required federal quality reporting and improving reimbursement. Investigators can request use of RISE’s rich source of information for research, which can be made available for a fee, depending on the research project’s scope and components. More information, including the application for using RISE data for research projects, can be found at https://rheumatology.org/about-rise-registry.

Funding Research

Although research is based on novel ideas, it also requires funding. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the largest public source of rheumatology research funding in the U.S. The ACR engages in meetings with NIH leadership within the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Institute of Aging and the Office of Autoimmune Disease Research, with a goal of discussing our shared priorities of advancing research that impacts patients with rheumatic diseases. In recent years, the NIH budget has faced challenges that impact the payline levels of grant applications that the NIH institutes and offices have been able to provide. The ACR Government Affairs Committee and RheumPAC play a critical role in advocacy with Congress for federal funding to support rheumatology research.

Through awards that support workforce
expansion and research discoveries, the
Rheumatology Research Foundation is improving the lives of patients with rheumatic diseases.

No discussion of rheumatology research would be complete without the inclusion of our amazing Rheumatology Research Foundation. Our Foundation was established by the ACR in 1985 and has grown to become the largest private funding source for rheumatology research in the U.S., and second only to the NIH in overall funding support. The mission of the Foundation is to advance research and training to improve the health of patients living with rheumatic disease. As of May 1, 2024, the Foundation had funded more than 4,690 awards directed toward this mission. An important aspect of Foundation research awards is that these fund not only specific innovative research projects, but also career development, including NIH bridge awards, adult and pediatric research fellow awards, and scientist and investigator awards.

Foundation funding also supports workforce expansion of rheumatology professionals through awards focused on recruitment and education/training. These awards range from outreach to undergraduates, medical students, rheumatology professionals and those under-represented in medicine, as well as fellowship training awards and clinician educator awards.

Through the wide spectrum of this award portfolio, the Foundation supports training and research at all levels, from the earliest future rheumatologist to the most senior investigator. Since the Foundation’s inception, the ACR has remained a key contributor, providing financial support, which allows 100% of all donations made to the Foundation to go toward its mission. For 15 years, the Foundation has received a prestigious four-star rating from Charity Navigator, reflecting this high level of fiscal responsibility in the conduct of its mission.

The longer I have known our Foundation, the deeper my respect for this organization has grown, as well as my awareness of how under-recognized its work is toward securing the future of rheumatology. I hope you will spend time learning more about the Foundation and join me in supporting its essential mission (https://www.rheumresearch.org).

Dissemination of Research Results

The plenary sessions at the ACR’s annual meeting present research on current topics. The first plenary session at ACR Convergence 2024 (pictured) included discussions of the SELECT-GCA trial, placebo response in PsA trials and more.

The ACR advances the dissemination of research findings through our three peer-reviewed journals. Arthritis & Rheumatology, Arthritis Care & Research and ACR Open Rheumatology are committed to promoting the highest standards of trusted scientific information within rheumatology and reach a wide international audience through which investigators can share their findings. During ACR Convergence, the ACR Committee on Journal Publications announced the selection of S. Louis Bridges Jr., MD, PhD, as the next editor in chief of Arthritis & Rheumatology. Dr. Bridges will extend the excellence and innovations established by the journal’s previous leaders, including current Editor-in-Chief Daniel Solomon, MD, MPH.

The other way, of course, that the ACR supports the dissemination of research results is through our meetings, which brings us full circle to ACR Convergence. At ACR Convergence 2024, 2,713 abstracts of original research were presented in plenary, late-breaking, concurrent and poster presentation sessions, as selected and organized by the abstract review teams within the Annual Meeting Planning Committee. This body of research represents a truly remarkable collection of scientific achievements made through the dedicated efforts of investigators from around the world. The ACR congratulates and thanks all of our abstract presenters for your contributions to rheumatology. We will continue to strive to be the place that you choose to bring your research results for presentation and discussion.

Research remains the catalyst for future breakthroughs. Supporting investigators within every rheumatology research discipline to be able to learn, conduct, fund and disseminate their research exemplifies the ACR mission to empower rheumatology professionals to excel in their specialty and advance discoveries that will benefit patients with rheumatic disease. I look forward to seeing what new innovations await us at ACR Convergence 2025.

Carol A. Langford, MD, MHS

Carol A. Langford, MD, MHS, is the director of the Center for Vasculitis Care and Research in the Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases at Cleveland Clinic, where she is professor of medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and holds the Harold C. Schott endowed chair in rheumatic and immunologic diseases.