Ted Mikuls, MD, the Stokes-Shackleford Professor of Rheumatology at UNMC, considers himself a lucky man.
Not because he will be honored this afternoon as UNMC’s 21st Scientist Laureate, the university’s highest honor for researchers.
Instead, it’s because since he arrived at UNMC as a faculty member in 2002, one of his earliest ideas – a rheumatology registry that he started at the VA in Omaha – has grown into something that has let him connect with colleagues across the country, work with different patient populations and make an impact that, more than two decades later, cannot be measured.
That’s also what Bryant England, MD, PhD, chief of the UNMC Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, thinks.
He’s quick to praise Dr. Mikuls’ work as a scientist.
“Dr. Mikuls is an internationally renowned researcher in RA (rheumatoid arthritis) and gout whose work has tremendous translational impact – from basic studies on immunologic mechanisms underlying RA pathogenesis to real-world implementation of guideline concordant care in gout.”
But Dr. England also pointed to the founding of the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis Registry, where Dr Mikuls has been principal investigator for the past 24 years, as work of high stature. He noted that under Dr. Mikuls’ leadership, the registry has grown nationally across the VA and resulted in a remarkable 160 scientific publications.
“What is perhaps most impressive of Dr. Mikuls’ research career is how his work and his mentorship have launched the careers of junior investigators,” Dr. England said.
Dr. Mikuls said the registry is something he will look back on with pride when his career ends.
“Data from the registry has helped a lot of people,” he said. “I’m particularly happy that it’s helped a lot of early career investigators get their own careers off the ground, including people here, but also people at other institutions around the country. That’s been incredibly rewarding to see.”
The registry grew slowly, Dr. Mikuls said. It wasn’t until January 2003 that the first patient was enrolled, the first paper based on the registry published about five years later.
“It took time – and blood, sweat and tears — to get to that place, and it has steadily grown.”
When he started the registry, the VA was the only integrated health system in the United States that had an electronic health record, he said.
“It was a national, standardized medical record, and our vision at the time, which actually came to pass, was that we’d be able to leverage that data collection and the EHR to really understand the patient population we were working with.”
Thanks to the registry, researchers can drill down on many aspects of RA. Dr. Mikuls mentioned Dr. England’s own work on interstitial lung disease, which occurs among about 10% of RA patients.
“Dr. England was able to build a cohort within the cohort, which represents a one-of-a-kind resource in rheumatology research,” Dr. Mikuls said.
Amy Cannella, MD, professor of rheumatology at UNMC and section chief of rheumatology at the NWI VA, said:
“Ted Mikuls is a pillar of research, education and clinical care both at UNMC and the VA. He asks important questions and builds programs to find the answers. His career of clinical and translational research, including mentoring the next generation of clinician scientists, has shaped the care of patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and gout around the world.”
Maybe it’s due to his work with the registry, or as a mentor, but Dr. Mikuls said the network researchers develop — the collaborators, colleagues and patient volunteers — is far more meaningful than any individual research work.
“Research can sometimes be a grind, we all know it,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it can also be fun. And your collaborators and the patient populations you work with, they are what make it fun. That is what you will remember.”