Ali Guermazi, MD, PhD

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Ali Guermazi, MD, PhD, is the Director of the Quantitative Imaging Center, Professor of Radiology, and Section Chief of Musculoskeletal Imaging at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

Ali Guermazi speaks on “Diversity”….

Prior to joining Boston University, he was Director of the Osteoporosis and Arthritis Research Group (OARG) at University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and then Director of Clinical Research at Synarc, Inc. in San Francisco. Before that, Dr. Guermazi spent 12 years in Paris and worked mainly at the prestigious Saint-Louis University Hospital.

Dr. Guermazi’s interest is in musculoskeletal diseases. Of particular note are his scientific contributions in the diagnosis, incidence and disease progression assessment of osteoarthritis using MRI. His work has focused on identifying structural risk factors for developing and worsening osteoarthritis. Dr. Guermazi had been involved in developing several original and widely accepted radiological methods to assess osteoarthritis disease risk and progression, including the WORMS, BLOKS and MOAKS for the knee, HOAMS for the hip, and fixed-flexion radiography for measuring joint space width. Dr. Guermazi has been involved as an MRI reader for the past 17 years in several large U.S. studies including the Health Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) study, the Boston Osteoarthritis Knee study (BOKS), the Multi-center Osteoarthritis STudy (MOST), the Framingham study, Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), and other large NIH-funded studies, as well as several Pharmaceutical-sponsored clinical trials. He is the author of over 380 peer-reviewed publications, 12 books, over 50 chapters and Investigator on numerous research grants related to MRI reading for Osteoarthritis.

Dr. Guermazi is of Turkish background, and was born in Tunisia (North Africa) where the Muslim and Jewish populations have had a long and peaceful history. He lived in France where he met his French-Berber wife, and later moved to the United States. Ali speaks 3 languages fluently, and has a basic knowledge of 3 others. Of note, he visited more than 140 countries for work and leisure. With all this rich heritage, Dr. Guermazi is committed to collaborating with faculty, staff and students across BUMC/BMC to advance understanding and relations among the various represented groups on campus. He and his wife are heavily involved in interfaith programs and have organized several events in the past to support dialogue between Muslims, Christians and Jews. One of his beliefs is that peace is achievable through religious practice and political dialogue if there is a sincere willingness, tolerance and openness to others.