David T. Felson MD, MPH
Professor, Rheumatology
Professor, Epidemiology
650 Albany St | (617) 638-5180david.felson@bmc.org
dfelson@bu.edu
Sections
Rheumatology
Centers
Arthritis & Autoimmune Diseases Research Center
Framingham Heart Study
Boston Nutrition Obesity Research Center
Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
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.
Other Positions
Education
Medicine, MD, Johns Hopkins University
Public Health, MPH, Boston University School of Public Health
History/Biochemistry, AB, Harvard College
Publications
Felson DT, Stokes AC. Obesity, Weight Loss, and Knee Osteoarthritis: The Role of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists. Ann Intern Med. 2025 Sep 16. PMID: 40953448.
Published on 9/15/2025Huang CH, Segal NA, Felson DT, Sherman DA, Lewis CL, Bacon KL, Lynch J, Lewis CE, Stefanik J. Impact of Knee Extensor Power on Knee Pain in Adults With or at Risk for Osteoarthritis: The Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study. J Rheumatol. 2025 Sep 15. PMID: 40953946.
Published on 9/12/2025Park N, Sieberer JM, McGinley B, Manafzadeh AR, Lynch J, Segal NA, Lewis CE, Guermazi A, Roemer FW, Stefanik J, Felson DT, Fulkerson JP. Measures of Patellofemoral Morphology Predict the Risk of Local Cartilage Damage Progression: A Yale/MOST Collaborative Study. Am J Sports Med. 2025 Oct; 53(12):2881-2888. PMID: 40938089.
Published on 8/18/2025van den Berg MA, Boel F, van Buuren MMA, Riedstra NS, Tang J, Ahedi H, Arden NK, Bierma-Zeinstra SMA, Boer CG, Cicuttini FM, Cootes TF, Felson DT, Gielis WP, Heerey J, Jones G, Kluzek S, Lane NE, Lindner C, van Meurs JBJ, Mosler A, Nelson AE, Nevitt MC, Oei EH, Runhaar J, Weinans H, Krijthe JH, Agricola R. Hip morphology-based osteoarthritis risk prediction models: development and external validation using individual participant data from the World COACH Consortium. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2025 Aug 18. PMID: 40826979.
Published on 7/1/2025Sherman DA, Neogi T, Hornsby S, Felson D, Lavalley M, Stefanik JJ. Association of Knee Pain Frequency and Severity with Quadriceps Strength but Not Rate of Decline Over Four Years. ACR Open Rheumatol. 2025 Jul; 7(7):e70067. PMID: 40586171.
Published on 6/30/2025Parkes MJ, Felson DT, LaValley MP. Increasing Placebo Response Rates and the Threat to Clinical Trials: How Will We Identify Effective Treatments for Rheumatic Disorders? Arthritis Rheumatol. 2025 Jun 30. PMID: 40583535.
Published on 6/10/2025Felson DT, Berenbaum F. Examples of Treatments That May Be Highly Effective for Osteoarthritis: Do They Provide Insights Into Future Treatment Directions? Arthritis Rheumatol. 2025 Jun 10. PMID: 40495271.
Published on 4/28/2025Neogi T, Dubreuil M, Peloquin C, Marinko L, Camarinos J, Felson DT, Kumar D. Reply. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2025 Apr 28. PMID: 40289862.
Published on 4/11/2025Sara LK, Felson DT, Tilley S, LaValley MP, Lewis CE, Lynch JA, Segal NA, Guermazi A, Roemer F, Stefanik JJ, Lewis CL. The relation of walking forces to structural damage in the knee: The Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2025 Jun; 33(6):745-752. PMID: 40222627.
Published on 4/2/2025Neogi T, Dubreuil M, Peloquin C, Marinko L, Camarinos J, Felson DT, Kumar D. Association of Physical Therapy Care With Use of Intra-Articular Injections in People With Knee Osteoarthritis: A Real-World Cohort Study. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2025 Aug; 77(8):1006-1014. PMID: 40091450.
Media Mentions
Published on 10/30/2024
Obesity Drug Shows Promise in Easing Knee Osteoarthritis Pain
Published on 10/30/2024
Semaglutide linked to reduced arthritis knee pain in people with obesity, study finds
Published on 10/30/2024
Wegovy Reduced Pain From Knee Osteoarthritis
Published on 3/20/2024
Published on 11/12/2023
Researchers suggest new approach for testing treatments for osteoarthritis.
Published on 10/26/2023
PCPs and Knee OA: When to Keep Treating, When to Refer
Published on 10/13/2023
BU researchers novel osteoarthritis treatment testing idea
Published on 10/12/2023
Published on 12/20/2022
Can Metformin Reduce Need for Total Joint Replacement in Diabetes?
Published on 3/15/2022
The Safety of Corticosteroid Injections for People With Knee Osteoarthritis
View full list of 25 media mentions.