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WIGLEY RECEIVES DISTINGUISHED CLINICIAN SCHOLAR AWARD FROM AMERICAN COLLEGE OF RHEUMATOLOGY

ATLANTA – Fredrick M. Wigley, MD, professor of medicine, associate director of the division of rheumatology, and director of the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center at the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore, Md., received the Distinguished Clinician Scholar Award from the American College of Rheumatology during the ACR Annual Scientific Meeting, October 16 – 21 in Philadelphia, Pa.

The Distinguished Clinician Scholar Award is given to a rheumatologist who has made outstanding contributions in clinical medicine, clinical scholarship, or education.

Dr. Fredrick M. Wigley was born in Alexandria, Va. He received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Chicago in 1968 and his medical degree at the University of Florida in 1972. He began his internship on the Osler Medical Service in 1972 and later concluded his residency training in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University in 1975. After a two year stint in the Navy, he returned to Baltimore and completed his fellowship training in rheumatology at Johns Hopkins in 1979. He has remained at Hopkins throughout the duration of a distinguished thirty year career in academic medicine, including promotion to professor of Medicine in 1996. He was the director of the Johns Hopkins division of rheumatology from 1982 to 2002. He is currently a distinguished professor of medicine, associate director of the division of rheumatology, and founded the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center in 1991, of which he is the director.

Dr. Wigley’s research focuses on the events that cause scleroderma and on the signs and symptoms of scleroderma. He is testing new treatments for Raynaud’s phenomenon and scleroderma. Dr. Wigley’s investigations with his colleagues include: the first U.S. report of the use of nifedipine in the treatment of Raynaud’s phenomenon – thus introducing the use of calcium channel blockers into the treatment of this disorder, several investigations into the responses of patients with scleroderma to cold exposure, and completion of a major clinical trial investigating the role of intravenous iloprost in the treatment of Raynaud’s phenomenon. In addition, he has conducted clinical investigations into the pathogenesis of scleroderma and made novel clinical observations in several aspects of the disease. Dr. Wigley has dedicated his career to improving our understanding and enhancing the lives of patients with an underlying diagnosis which represents the most severe end of the entire rheumatology clinical spectrum and in giving his patients a renewed sense of hope and optimism. To achieve this end, Dr. Wigley specifically created an outstanding specialized center of excellence in the area of scleroderma. 

For thirty years, Dr. Wigley has been a major influence in the areas of scleroderma, Raynaud’s and general rheumatology scholarship. He has authored and co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed articles (including four papers in the New England Journal of Medicine, five in Annals of Internal Medicine, in addition to 40 in Arthritis & Rheumatism and 26 in the Journal of Rheumatology), 38 invited manuscripts, plus 51 book chapters.

He has mentored 28 postdoctoral fellows, many whom are now leaders in academic rheumatology. Dr. Wigley also has been successful in the procurement of external grant funding in the support of his research program, including from the National Institutes of Health, Arthritis Foundation, Scleroderma Research Foundation, and multiple pharmaceutical companies.

The ACR is an organization of and for physicians, health professionals, and scientists that advances rheumatology through programs of education, research, advocacy and practice support that foster excellence in the care of people with or at risk for arthritis and rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases.

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