Dr. Robert Simms announces his retirement
Dr. Robert Simms announces his intention to retire from Boston University School of Medicine
Dr. Robert Simms of the Section of Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine has announced his intention to retire in March, 2020. Dr. Simms has served as faculty in the School of Medicine, the Department of Medicine, and the Section of Rheumatology with distinction for 35 years. During this time, he has made important contributions to the fields of rheumatology and scleroderma locally, nationally and internationally.
Dr. Simms has spent virtually his entire career at BUSM, beginning as a Rheumatology Fellow in 1985, Assistant Professor in 1988, Associate Professor in 1996 and Professor in 2001. From 2005 to 2008, he served as Acting Rheumatology Section Head and then from 2008 to 2018, Section Head. He has had a career-long commitment to
the growth and success of the Rheumatology Section, serving as Clinical Director and Fellowship Program Director for many years before becoming Section Head. His guiding principle for the most successful center of disease investigation was the creation of a highly collaborative environment which included both basic and clinical investigators under one roof. This model has remained a highly productive template for the Scleroderma Center at Boston University, which has become among the largest and most successful scleroderma centers both nationally and internationally.
In the Department of Medicine, Dr. Simms has served on the Clinical Directors Committee, the Gastroenterology Search Committee and the Promotions Committee. Most recently, he helped facilitate the successful merger of Rheumatology and Clinical Epidemiology under the new leadership of Dr. Tuhina Neogi. In addition to serving on many national committees for the American College of Rheumatology, he co-chaired the first Practice Guideline Committee publishing widely influential, evidence-based guidelines for the management of rheumatoid arthritis. In recognition of his leadership in the field, Dr. Simms was awarded the Marion Ropes Award by the Arthritis Foundation.
In the field of scleroderma, Dr. Simms has made influential contributions in advancing novel treatment and understanding of the condition. Among them is the development of outcome measures to facilitate clinical therapeutic trials, the role of autologous transplantation and the development of successful disease modifying therapies. Seminal contributions have also included his role as a steering committee member and co-investigator in a serial of pivotal treatment studies establishing the critical role of immunosuppressive therapy in slowing the rate of disease progression (Scleroderma Lung Studies I, II and III). As a result of these studies, mycophenylate mofetil has emerged as a new standard of care in treatment of the disease. A BU team of scleroderma investigators including Dr. Simms and headed by Dr. Lafyatis showed that a novel monoclonal antibody therapy directed at TGFβ improved clinical measures of disease and biomarkers of fibrosis.
Dr. Simms has also played an additional international role in the World Scleroderma Foundation on its Scientific Advisory Board; this organization facilitates education and research throughout the world.
In recognition of his career-long commitment to excellence in the clinical care, research and education of scleroderma, Dr. Simms was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by the Scleroderma Foundation.
We will have ample opportunities to thank Dr. Simms for his decades of service and to recognize his contributions through March 2020.