David T. Felson, MD, MPH

Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. David Felson's research interests include: understanding how to prevent osteoarthritis and treat osteoarthritis. In osteoarthritis, Dr. Felson’s interests include studying whether treatments for rheumatic diseases are effective and particularly in osteoarthritis, identifying biomechanical risk factors for disease and testing biomechanical treatments and characterizing MRI features of normal knees and knees with pain. He also studies outcome measurement in rheumatic disease and has focused in this work on rheumatoid arthritis trials.

Publications

  • Published 7/22/2026

    Felix M, McGwin G, Alarcon GS, Osmani L, Felson D, Suter LG, Hsieh E. Glucocorticoid exposure and social support deficits as longitudinal predictors of long-term neuropsychiatric damage in SLE: insights from the LUMINA cohort (LXXXIII). Lupus Sci Med. 2026 Jul 22; 13(2). PMID: 42486615.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 7/13/2026

    Callaghan MJ, Felson DT, Holden MA, Borrelli B, Nicholls E, Birrell F, Foster NE, Halliday N, Ingram C, Jinks C, Peat GM. Sensor-based measures of knee brace adherence have low agreement with self-report methods: A multi-measure study among knee osteoarthritis patients. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2026 Jul 13. PMID: 42442456.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 6/8/2026

    Bateni CP, Ha AS, Bartolotta RJ, Felson D, Geannette CS, Klitzke AK, Laur O, Lee CA, Morris RW, Mujahid N, Wessell DE. ACR Appropriateness Criteria® Chronic Knee Pain: Update 2026. J Am Coll Radiol. 2026 Jun 08. PMID: 42340275.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 6/2/2026

    Perry TA, Deng Y, Hulley PA, Maciewicz RA, Mitchelmore J, Larsson S, Gogain J, Brachat S, Struglics A, Appleton CT, Kluzek S, Arden NK, Felson D, Bondi L, Kapoor M, Lohmander LS, Welting TJ, Walsh DA, Valdes AM, Jostins-Dean L, Watt FE, Tom BDM, Vincent TL. Large-scale molecular endotype discovery in synovial fluid reveals osteoarthritis as a single biological continuum. Nat Commun. 2026 Jun 02; 17(1). PMID: 42230587.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 5/5/2026

    Liew JW, Jarraya M, Guermazi A, Ukonu NC, Rabasa G, Terkeltaub R, Felson D, Nevitt M, Lewis CE, Torner J, Neogi T. The association of CT-detected intra-articular calcification with MRI-detected effusion-synovitis and Hoffa-synovitis in knee OA: The Multicenter Osteoarthritis study. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2026 Aug; 34(8):1263-1269. PMID: 42097273.

    Read at: PubMed

Other Positions

  • Professor, Epidemiology
    Boston University School of Public Health
  • Investigator
    Framingham Heart Study
  • Member, Arthritis & Autoimmune Diseases Research Center
    Boston University
  • Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
    Boston University
  • Graduate Medical Sciences Educator and Mentor (Primary Mentor of Graduate Students)
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences

Education

  • Johns Hopkins University, MD
  • Boston University School of Public Health, MPH
  • Harvard College, AB