Hospital for Special Surgery Honors Stephen A. Paget, M.D. with Lifetime Achievement Award

New York, NY—June 21, 2010

Internationally recognized Hospital for Special Surgery rheumatologist Stephen A. Paget, M.D., FACP, FACR, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the hospital’s 27th Annual Tribute Dinner at the Waldorf=Astoria, Monday, June 21, 2010. Matt Lauer, co-anchor of NBC News’ Today Show, will serve as toastmaster.

Dr. Paget is physician-in-chief emeritus and medical director for Academic, International and Philanthropic Initiatives. From his early days at HSS beginning as a rheumatology fellow in 1975, he rose to become physician-in-chief, Department of Medicine, and chairman, Division of Rheumatology, at Hospital for Special Surgery, before transitioning to his current role earlier this year. He also served as Joseph P. Routh Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College. As a clinician, educator and clinical investigator, he has had a significant influence upon the field of rheumatology.

“For the past 35 years, Dr. Paget has been an outstanding clinician as well as a role model and leader to his division and fellows,” said Louis A. Shapiro, president and chief executive officer of Hospital for Special Surgery. “We are deeply grateful for his unwavering dedication and service to our hospital and proud to bestow this lifetime achievement award as a way to recognize his passion and commitment to excellence in patient care, education and research.”
 
Under Dr. Paget’s leadership, the rheumatology staff has grown to be the largest in the nation with a rheumatology fellowship program that is one of the most sought after fellowships in the country. With his vision, programs such as the academic and highly respected Perioperative Center were formed to assure timely and excellent care of HSS patients scheduled for surgery. A hospitalist program has enhanced the cadre of doctors that deliver perioperative care and offers training for physician assistants. In addition, a model infusion unit was developed and expanded, delivering exceptional care in a safe and supportive environment.

With his guiding hand, the hospital’s Kirkland Center for Lupus Research has become a national leader in lupus care and its scientists have received millions of dollars in NIH research grants. From this and membership in the Lupus Clinical Trials Consortium, a Lupus Center was begun delivering multidisciplinary care to thousands of HSS patients with lupus.

Dr. Paget has dedicated his professional career to the care of thousands of patients and to the education of hundreds of residents and fellows. His research is concentrated primarily in the area of systemic lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, the systemic vasculitides and premature atherosclerosis. Dr. Paget has received numerous awards and recognitions, ranging from the Arthritis Foundation Clinical Research Award and the J.J. Smith Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship at New York Hospital to New York Magazine’s “Best Doctors in New York.”

“It has been an honor to guide, through our fellowship training program, the development of academic, research and educational leaders in rheumatology, “ said Dr. Paget. “I look forward to continuing my work at HSS teaching the next generation of doctors and caring for patients in need, which, at the end of the day, has always been the greatest reward for me.”
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Dr. Paget received a bachelor of arts degree cum laude from Brooklyn College in 1966 and a doctor of medicine degree from Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1971, graduating summa cum laude. He completed his internal medicine training at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, after which he spent two years as a clinical associate, Arthritis and Rheumatism Branch, National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolic and Digestive Diseases, at the National Institutes of Health. There, he conducted innovative research into the character of immune cells that infiltrate rheumatoid synovial membranes. Soon after, Dr. Paget joined Hospital for Special Surgery as a fellow in Rheumatic Disease in Charles L. Christian’s program. He has remained with the institution ever since.