Prof Oliver Fitzgerald

Oliver FitzGerald is a consultant rheumatologist and Newman Clinical Research Professor at St Vincent’s University Hospital and the Conway Institute, University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. He qualified from UCD in 1978 and completed his postgraduate training both in Dublin and at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Professor FitzGerald has published over 280 peer reviewed papers, many on the subject of inflammatory arthritis in particular 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. Professor FitzGerald has served on a number of editorial boards. He is a council member of the Group for Research and Assessment in Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) and a member of the European Synovitis Study Group and of the Ankylosing Spondylitis Assessment (ASAS) Group. He is also working with the Outcome Measures in Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trials (OMERACT) group to develop a longitudinal study of soluble biomarkers of joint damage. As chairman of Arthritis Ireland, he has played an important role in driving the appointment of Irelands first academic chair in Rheumatology. Professor FitzGerald was HSE Programme Lead in Rheumatology between 2009-15.