The Verna Wright Prize Edition 2020
The award was given on September 10, 2020 in a meeting held online, as the world was reeling from the Covid 19 pandemic in those days and it was not possible to imagine an in-person meeting. The in-person award was then presented on March 23, 2022, when it was finally possible, albeit with necessary restrictions, to have Prof. Olivier Fitzgerald as a guest in Naples.
2020 Oliver FitzGerald MD FRCPI FRCP (IRELAND)
Consultant Rheumatologist (emeritus), St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland and Newman Clinical Research Professor, Conway Institute for Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland
Professor Oliver FitzGerald qualified from UCD in 1978 and completed his postgraduate training both at UCD and at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Professor FitzGerald has published over 330 peer-reviewed papers, many on the subject of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. His main research interests in psoriatic arthritis include clinical and therapeutic studies; the development of novel imaging techniques for measuring synovial or entheseal inflammation, including ultrasound and MRI; analysis of synovial and skin cellular and cytokine profiles; and more recently, studies of gene and protein expression in diseased tissue and in liquid biopsies with a view to developing multi-omic biomarkers of PsA diagnosis, outcome and treatment response. He currently receives research-funding support from the Irish Health Research Board and a number of pharmaceutical companies. Professor FitzGerald has served on a number of editorial boards. He is currently vice-President of the Group for Research and Assessment in Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) and a member of both the European Synovitis Study Group and the Ankylosing Spondylitis Assessment Group. As co-chair of the GRAPPA research committee, he has been driving the development of a Collaborative Research Network (CRN) within GRAPPA with the aim of addressing critical areas of unmet need in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Professor FitzGerald received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Society for Rheumatology in 2018.
