Dr. van Riel’s approach to research is also collaborative, notes Pilar Barrera, MD, PhD, of the rheumatology department at Radboud University Medical Centre. “He is a collaborator, and he’s a thinker, but he’s also someone who lets other people think about what should be done,” says Dr. Barrera. “We have many weekly meeting moments in which people from several disciplines come together. Together – rheumatologists, biomedical scientists, laboratory researchers – we make, I think, the perfect team.”
Career
1978–Graduates from Catholic University of Nijmegen.
1985–Completes internal medicine training at St. Radboud Ziekenhuis in Nijmegen.
1986–Completes rheumatology training at Academic Hospital in Nijmegen.
1987–Accepts position as associate professor of rheumatology at University Hospital in Nijmegen.
1987–Work on the Disease Activity Score begins.
1993–Becomes duty head of rheumatology and director of the clinical research unit at University Hospital.
1997–Becomes professor of rheumatology at the University Hospital.
2003–Accepts position as head of rheumatology at University Medical Centre St. Radboud.
Free Time is Limited
Dr. van Riel has authored more than 250 scientific articles, and served as Chairman of the EULAR Standing Committee for International Clinical Studies including Therapeutic Trials from 1999–2004. As the chair of the Dutch Society of Rheumatology, he has accomplished much important work in the Netherlands in that capacity, according to Dr. Landewé. His own research and publications, as well as travel to medical meetings and guest lectureships worldwide (he recently returned from a trip to Japan) leave little time for relaxation. “The free time is always limited,” he laughs, “but I do like to work in the garden, when possible. On Saturday mornings I run with a group of people, and at least once during the week as well.” He also participates in the yearly Zevenheuvelenloop (Seven Hills) 15k run in his hometown of Nijmegen.
Dr. van Riel, his wife, and three daughters (one still lives at home) like to relax at home during the holidays. They also enjoy travel to Canada and the United States – especially California, where he appreciates the relaxation of driving in the wide-open spaces of the West – a real contrast, he says, to the heavy traffic on the European continent.
Contributions and Assessment Barriers
Asked about his contributions to the field of rheumatology outcome measures, Dr. van Riel tellingly uses the pronoun “we” and not “I” to characterize his work. He believes he and his colleagues were “a little bit lucky” to have begun their work on assessments in the mid 1980s. When new treatments for RA, especially the biologicals, became available in the mid 1990s, there was more of a need for an instrument to evaluate different treatments. “So, we were lucky that we developed those instruments and that, later on, treatments became available that needed an instrument to assess the response to those treatments,” he says. “This allowed the ability to titrate doses in your patients.”
