master's level researchers
with expertise in the fields of epidemiology and biostatistics. He has served as a mentor over the past ten years for
at least 14 doctoral level or postdoctoral fellows in either epidemiology, arthritis or general internal medicine.
Former fellows and doctoral students are currently faculty members at Harvard Medical School, University of Western
Ontario in Canada, and Cornell Medical School. Dr. Felson was elected in 1994 to the American Society for Clinical
Investigation and is the only nonbiomedical researcher to have received the Henry J. Kunkel Young Investigator Award
from the American College of Rheumatology, the most prestigious single award given yearly to investigative
rheumatologists under age 45.
Dr. Felson's research has consistently focused on musculoskeletal diseases highly prevalent in the elderly, and
he has written extensively on the epidemiology of osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, both areas of key importance in
women's health. Recent accomplishments include the first longitudinal study of knee osteoarthritis which has
provided documentation that the occurrence of osteoarthritis is closely correlated with a person's weight and has
reported that physically active older persons are at higher risk of developing osteoarthritis than sedentary elders.
Recent work has also suggested for the first time an association of dietary factors including vitamin C and vitamin D
with osteoarthritis progression.
Also, Dr. Felson's research has helped to suggest that inflammation may be the main causes of pain in osteoarthritis.
Dr. Felson's work at the Framingham Study has also helped define the disability impact of knee osteoarthritis in
elders.
Ongoing projects include the study of osteoarthritis of the knees and hands in Framingham cohort and offspring study
groups and the newly constituted Framingham Omni Cohort which is a sample of minority, middle-aged and elderly subjects
in Framingham. Also, Dr. Felson is a coinvestigator in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study, a study he started.
In this study, members of the Framingham cohort, offspring and Omni cohorts are getting repeated bone mineral
density assessments and dietary and physical factors are being tested in terms of their correlation with bone loss.
Dr. Felson is the principal investigator of the Beijing Osteoarthritis Study, a study of the prevalence of knee, hand
and hip osteoarthritis in a population-based sample of Beijing residents 60 years and over. This study will help
elucidate whether Chinese rates of hip osteoarthritis are, as is believed, much lower than rates in Caucasians and
will help elucidate why. Further, it will evaluate the prevalence of other forms of arthritis and test whether
arthritis prevalence is associated with the much more physically active lifestyles of elder Chinese than elders in
the United States.
As principal investigator of a study of the inheritance of osteoarthritis based at Framingham, Dr. Felson is taking
advantage of the family structure of the Framingham Study to evaluate how osteoarthritis is inherited and whether a
particular gene induces osteoarthritis in family members. Parents and children have now been studied, and results
preliminarily suggest several major loci in the genome that appear to be associated with the occurrence of osteoarthritis
in affected siblings.
Dr. Felson has also been the chairperson of a committee to develop outcome measures in rheumatoid arthritis trials
and has been similarly involved in developing definitions of outcome for trials and other musculoskeletal diseases.
While much of the international collaboration and data analysis work involved in this endeavor has been completed, Dr.
Felson and his colleagues at the Arthritis Center continue to be involved in evaluating the methodology of trials in
arthritis. Dr. Felson has a longstanding research interest in meta-analysis and fellows working with him are currently
performing meta-analyses looking at rheumatoid arthritis therapy and therapy of steroid-induced osteoporosis.
Dr. Felson's research interests in the epidemiology of musculoskeletal diseases has not been limited to osteoporosis
and osteoarthritis. He is currently also involved in studies of foot disorders in the elderly, studies of the prevalence
and risk factors for Raynaud's phenomenon and studies of back pain and its impact in the elderly.
Dr. Felson has a well-established role as mentor to junior investigators, and has demonstrated his role in developing
interdisciplinary training through the CREST clinical training program.
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