ACR Excellence in Investigative Mentoring
Earl Silverman, MD, FRCPC
Professor of pediatrics, Division of Rheumatology, Hospital for Sick Children (HSC), University of Toronto
Background: When you have a front row seat to greatness, it influences your decisions. Dr. Silverman trained at Stanford University under some of the most revered immunologists in the field, then returned to Toronto, where he helped establish a residency program in the city where he grew up. He has since mentored trainees from more than 70 countries.
But, more than anything, he makes no bones about what a “tough life” research can be. It’s a career that “demands sacrifice,” he says. “Our trainees learn a way of thinking, a rigor of thinking that will always benefit you. Even if you never again develop your own research project, it makes you a better doctor.”
Dr. Silverman trained at HSC, and, in 1984, he was appointed to the newly established Division of Paediatric Rheumatology/Immunology as an assistant professor. “I was fortunate enough to come back to Toronto at the time when the program was just starting,” he says. “The powers that be at my hospital really saw the light. Shortly after my return, they separated the immunology and rheumatology divisions, and I was allowed to help shape and develop a training program. Remember, at this time the subspecialty almost didn’t exist, yet we had enough people to begin a training program.”
Thirty years later, he has established the largest pediatric lupus cohort in the world and mentored pediatric rheumatologists from every corner of the world. In 2013, he was named editor in chief of the Journal of Rheumatology, and he says his current work focuses on making sure others succeed.
“Of the awards possible from the ACR, this is the one I wanted to win more than any other,” he says. “It is a great moment of satisfaction.”
