WASHINGTON (July 14, 2014) — The George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) is pleased to announce that Victoria Shanmugam, MBBS, MRCP, has been appointed to serve as the director of the Division of Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine. She will also join the SMHS faculty as an associate professor of medicine.
“We are thrilled to have Dr. Shanmugam join the leadership and faculty at GW,” said Alan G. Wasserman, M.D., Eugene Meyer Professor of Medicine and chair of the Department of Medicine at SMHS. “The SMHS is committed to advancing scientific discovery and translating discoveries into action. The economic burden of musculoskeletal and autoimmune diseases is estimated to be $950 billion dollars annually. Dr. Shanmugam’s experience in translational research, rheumatology and wound healing brings cutting edge immunology and genomics research to the patient’s bedside. Her expertise is an enormous asset and will position the GW Division of Rheumatology to become one of the most robust academic divisions of rheumatology in the region.”
The GW Division of Rheumatology is currently the largest academic division of rheumatology in D.C., and the only academic division of rheumatology with numerous providers certified in using point-of-care musculoskeletal ultrasound for diagnosis and therapy in rheumatic disease. Shanmugam will focus on expanding the division and creating even greater resources for patients with autoimmune and rheumatic diseases in the D.C. region.
“The infrastructure and resources for rheumatology at GW are the best in the city,” said Shanmugam. “Through multidisciplinary patient care, patient-focused research, and our nationally accredited training program, we are committed to improving quality of life and clinical outcomes for patients with rheumatic disease. I am proud to be joining this spectacular team of clinicians and scientists.”
Shanmugam is the principal investigator of the WE-HEAL Study, which focuses on the interplay of the host immune response and the wound bed microbiome in patients with chronic wounds. She also has an interest in research to find targeted therapies to treat a rare autoimmune disease called scleroderma, and in research investigating the pathology of the Aromatase Inhibitor Musculoskeletal Syndrome and why aromatase inhibitors, which have shown to significantly reduce breast cancer recurrence, often cause joint pain.
A native of the United Kingdom, Shanmugam graduated from Oxford University and the Imperial College School of Medicine. She completed residencies at St. Bartholomew’s and the Royal London Hospitals and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 2002. Shanmugam is a member of several professional societies, both in Great Britain and the U.S., including the Royal College of Physicians, American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, American College of Rheumatology, and British Medical Association. Shanmugam most recently served as associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine, where she spent the last decade of her career.
She has received numerous awards for her research, including the American College of Rheumatology Physician Scientist Development Award, the John Eisenberg Memorial Career Development Award, and the C. Bertram Hoffberger Research Achievement Award. She was also a KL2 scholar at the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, such as Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Current Opinion in Rheumatology, International Wound Journal, and Clinical Rheumatology. Shanmugam is a frequently invited speaker at surgical, wound healing and rheumatologic national and international professional meetings.
Shanmugam will assume her new position on July 14, 2014.
