CCEB Seminar-Jeffrey Sparks, MD, MMSc

"Risk Factors and Outcomes of Rheumatoid Arthritis in the Nurses' Health Studies"Jeffrey Sparks, MD, MMScAssistant Professor of MedicineHarvard Medical School   Dr. Jeffrey Sparks is a rheumatologist in Boston, Massachusetts and is affiliated with Brigham and Women's Hospital. He received his medical degree from University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Medicine and has been in practice between 6-10 years. He is one of 55 doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital who specialize in Rheumatology.Our group has an overall focus on using patient-oriented and epidemiologic research studies to evaluate the etiology, outcomes, and public health burden of rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In particular, we perform studies to evaluate the genetic, environmental, serologic, and familial risk factors for RA, clinical trials for RA prevention, RA outcomes research focusing on the respiratory burden of RA, evaluate the effect of metabolic factors such as weight loss on RA outcomes, and investigate rheumatic manifestations of osseous sarcoidosis. We use large population-based studies for these studies, including the Nurses' Health Studies, the Studies for the Etiology of RA, the Partners electronic medical record, the Brigham RA Sequential Study, and pharmacy claims databases. We also perform clinical trials including the Personalized Risk Estimator for RA (PRE-RA) Family Study, the Strategy to Prevent the Onset of Clinically-Apparent RA (StopRA), and the Cardiovascular Inflammation Reduction Trial (CIRT).