The 2024 ACR Awards of Distinction

Dr. van der Heijde has published more than 1,050 papers, as well as chapters in leading rheumatology textbooks. Her H-index is 156, and she has been recognized as Clarivate’s highly cited researcher since 2014. She is editor of Hochberg’s Rheumatology textbook, associate editor of Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases and a member of the editorial board of RMD Open and Journal of Rheumatology. (For more information about Dr. van der Heijde, see https://www.the-rheumatologist.org/article/dsire-van-der-heijde-md-phd-a-key-driver-of-treatment-advances.)

Dr. Seo

Distinguished Service Award

The ACR Distinguished Service Award was presented to Philip Seo, MD, MHS, associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and physician editor for UpToDate, for outstanding and sustained service to the ACR.

A graduate of Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., and Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, Dr. Seo completed his internship and residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he also served as an assistant chief of service of the Barker Firm. He subsequently joined the Johns Hopkins Division of Rheumatology as a postdoctoral fellow and earned a Master of Health Science degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He was the director of the Johns Hopkins Vasculitis Center and the director of the Johns Hopkins Rheumatology Fellowship Training Program for 11 years.

Widely recognized as an authority on the assessment and management of the systemic vasculitides, Dr. Seo has lectured extensively on this topic throughout the U.S. and abroad. He is a recipient of both the Distinguished Clinical Scholar Award from the ACR and a Clinician Scholar Educator Award from the Rheumatology Research Foundation.

He is also known for his role as the third physician editor of The Rheumatologist. During his tenure, The Rheumatologist received seven Awards for Publication Excellence (APEX), including two Grand Awards—one for his monthly column, and a second for COVID-19 coverage.

Dr. Seo has served on multiple ACR committees, including the Committee on Training and Workforce Solutions, the Annual Meeting Planning Committee, the Membership and Awards Committee, the Vasculitis Guidelines Taskforce and the Virtual Rheumatology Program for Fellows-in-Training Taskforce. He has also served as a co-chair of the ACR’s In-Training Examination Taskforce, the Annual Meeting Review Course and the Non-ANCA Vasculitis Abstract Selection Committee.

Currently, Dr. Seo is a member of ACR’s State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium Committee. He is also an associate editor of Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Specialty Board in Rheumatology and co-editor of Clinical Innovation in Rheumatology: Past, Present, and Future, and Masterclass in Medicine: Lessons from the Experts.