Lab OverviewYazici Rheumatology Clinical Outcomes Research Unit
Yusuf Yazici, MD (pictured at left)
Email: Yusuf Yazici, MD
Theodore Pincus, MD (pictured below)
Email: Theodore Pincus, MD
Clinical Outcomes and Epidemiology
Epidemiology and outcomes research is a major research focus of the Division of Rheumatology. The division has made long-term investments in longitudinal registries that have been supported by both foundation and industry grants. The Arthritis Registry Monitoring Database (ARMD) monitors the long-term outcomes of all rheumatology patients seen at the Seligman Center.
The Division of Rheumatology has made major contributions in the field of RA disease activity monitoring and outcomes.
Dr. Yusuf Yazici, in collaboration with Dr. Theodore Pincus who recently was recruited to NYU from Vanderbilt University, have developed and validated novel composite measures of RA disease activity.
Dr. Pincus has been one of the leading outcomes researchers in rheumatology, making major contributions in our discipline’s understanding of the importance of patient functional status on mortality outcomes in RA patients.
Current projects by Drs. Pincus and Yazici focus on changing physician behavior to adopt a quantitative, measurement-driven approach to RA treatment decisions by integrating disease activity assessments into clinical practice.
In addition, new collaborative studies are underway, including the epidemiology of Psoriatic Arthritis led by Dr. Soumya Reddy in collaboration with Dr. Bruce Strober from Dermatology, epidemiology of Behcet's syndrome and neurologic involvement, working with Drs. Ilya Kister and Joseph Herbert.
Additional collaborative areas include knee osteoarthritis, integrating clinical risk factors with musculoskeletal ultrasound and 3T MRI diagnostic imaging.
One of the main projects of the Seligman Center has been to establish data collection and outcomes assessment tools, as part of routine care, part of the infrastructure of patient care at NYU HJD. This would not only improve the care we provide but would also serve as a very valuable source of patients for various research projects in clinical studies and translational research.