Stephen A. Paget, M.D., Consultant for the ABC News OnCall+ Pain Management Center
— -- Early on in his medical career, Stephen A. Paget, M.D. was attracted to the field of rheumatology not only in medical school at Downstate Medical Center through his close interactions with David Kaplan, M.D. but later at The Johns Hopkins Hospital via Mary Betty Stevens, M.D. and Larry Shulman, M.D.
After completing his internal medicine training at Hopkins, he spent two stimulating and formative years as a clinical associate at the National Institutes of Health under the guidance of John Decker, M.D. and John van Boxel, M.D. There his research focused on defining the character of the immune cells that infiltrated rheumatoid synovial membranes, eventuating in an important New England of Medicine paper that demonstrated that the T lymphocyte was the predominant cell type.
Thereafter, Dr. Paget was a rheumatology fellow in Charles L. Christian's program at Hospital for Special Surgery and since then he has remained on the faculty at that august institution for nearly thirty years.
After his fellowship, Dr. Paget continued his basic research focused on characterizing the immunopathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis, in collaboration with Dr. Paul Phillips. In the 1990s, he switched his focus to clinical research and was an Associate Director of the HSS/Cornell, NIH-funded Multipurpose Arthritis Center.
In 1995, Dr. Paget succeeded his mentor Dr. Charles Christian as Physician-in-Chief, Chairman of the Division of Rheumatology and the Joseph P. Routh Professor of Medicine and Rheumatic Disease at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Under his direction, HSS has expanded its rheumatology staff to more than 40 -- likely the largest rheumatology division in the world, has helped to carry on and expand the educational and investigative excellence initiated by Chuck Christian, and has supported a worldwide rheumatology outreach via the HSS website.
Dr. Paget is a paid consultant for the ABCNews.com OnCall+ Pain Management Center.
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