Our steering committee

Philippe Carron
Head of Clinic and Associate Professor at the Department of Rheumatology, Ghent University Hospital — a EULAR and FOCIS Centre of Excellence.

His research interests are centred around treatment algorithms in patients with early inflammatory rheumatic diseases, with a special focus on spondyloarthritis and RA. Another interest lies in the use of imaging techniques in daily practice, and in particular, the use of ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging and new molecular imaging techniques. 

Paul Emery
OBE, Versus Arthritis UK Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Leeds, UK, and Director of the Leeds National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre

He was President of EULAR from 2009 to 2011 and was inaugural chair of the executive committee of the Foundation for Research in Rheumatology. Prof. Emery’s research interests centre around the immunopathogenesis and immunotherapy of RA, spondyloarthritis, psoriatic disease and connective tissue diseases. He has a special interest in the factors leading to persistent inflammation.

Bruno Fautrel
Professor of Rheumatology and Head of the Department of Rheumatology at the Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Paris, France.

He was Head of the ESPOIR Cohort Scientific Committee and the Scientific Committee of the French Society for Rheumatology, principal investigator of two multicentre trials on the decline of targeted RA therapies and coordinating investigator of a European project on a multiomic approach to autoinflammatory disease diagnosis. He is Co-director of IMIDIATE, a national network devoted to clinical investigations in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.

Eugen Feist
Professor of Rheumatology and Medical Director of the Helios Clinic for Rheumatology in Vogelsang-Gommern, cooperation partner of the Otto-von-Guericke university Magdeburg, a leading rheumatology centre in Saxony-Anhalt.

His work is focussed on systemic autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases, with special interests in RA and adult-onset Still’s disease. He has been awarded the MSD grant for Arthritis and the Wolfgang Schulze prize of the Deutsche Rheuma-Liga. He has acted as Investigator in numerous Phase I–IV clinical studies in the field of rheumatology.

St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

Douglas Veale is Professor of Medicine, Director of Translational Research and Consultant Rheumatologist at the Centre for Arthritis and Rheumatic Disease, St. Vincent's University Hospital. He is also lead of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Centre of Excellence in Rheumatology based at St. Vincent's University Hospital.

Carlo Selmi
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at Humanitas University in Milan.

He currently leads the Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology Unit at Humanitas Research Hospital. His team holds dedicated clinics for RA, spondyloarthritis, connective tissue disease, systemic sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus. He has co-authored over 350 peer-reviewed publications, and his research is dedicated to organ-specific and systemic autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases, including autoimmune liver disease, connective tissue diseases and psoriatic arthritis.