Margreet Kloppenburg is professor of rheumatology, in particular etiology and clinimetrics of osteoarthritis, and works as rheumatologist and epidemiologist at the departments of rheumatology and clinical epidemiology of the Leiden University Medical Center, since 2000. Since 2017 she is educator of rheumatology. She is president of the Dutch Society of Rheumatology since 2020. She serves as a member of the council of the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) since 2021, and chair of its advocacy committee from June 2024 onward. She was member of the Health Care Professionals Working Party of European Medicines Agency on behalf of EULAR from 2018 to 2023. She was a member of the board of directors of the OsteoArthritis Research Society International (OARSI) from 2017 until 2022. She was awarded several prizes (Marie-Parijs price, International Elise Jourdevant price and Clinical Research Award from the OARSI ). Her research into osteoarthritis of the hands has been rewarded as Research Center of Excellence.

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Margreet Kloppenburg is professor of rheumatology, in particular etiology and clinimetrics of osteoarthritis, and works as rheumatologist and epidemiologist at the departments of rheumatology and clinical epidemiology of the Leiden University Medical Center, since 2000. Since 2017 she is educator of rheumatology.

She is president of the Dutch Society of Rheumatology since 2020. She serves as a member of the council of the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) since 2021, and chair of its advocacy committee from June 2024 onward. She was member of the Health Care Professionals Working Party of European Medicines Agency on behalf of EULAR from 2018 to 2023. She was a member of the board of directors of the OsteoArthritis Research Society International (OARSI) from 2017 until 2022.

She was awarded several prizes (Marie-Parijs price, International Elise Jourdevant price and Clinical Research Award from the  OARSI ). Her research into osteoarthritis of the hands has been rewarded as Research Center of Excellence.

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a highly prevalent chronic disorder that results in pain, disability, reduced quality of life and destructed joints. It can affect any joint; one of its predilection sites are the hand joints. Currently treatment for patients with osteoarthritis is limited. Her aim is to better understand underlying diseases processes and better measures its outcomes, with as ultimate goal to perform clinical trials, and to develop new treatments for osteoarthritis. She focus especially on osteoarthritis in the hand and knee.

She set up well-characterized cohorts including over 900 patients with osteoarthritis of the hands, enabling the study of disease course, and risk factors for progression. Her focus has been on the role of synovial and systemic inflammation in osteoarthritis. She developed a core set to monitor patients in clinical trials, and new EULAR classification criteria for hand osteoarthritis. These endeavors have facilitated the performance of several investigated-initiated clinical trials.

Academic career

After Kloppenburg graduated at the Medical School of the University of Groningen in 1991 (cum laude), she Kloppenburg obtained her Doctoral degree on the thesis "The tetracycline derivative minocycline as treatment for rheumatoid arthritis" at the University of Leiden in 1996. She was trained as a rheumatologist in the Leiden University Medical Center and qualified in 2000. In 2014 she registered as an epidemiologist. From 2011 to 2016 she served as member of the Medical Ethical Committee of the LUMC. Since 2017 she is educator of rheumatology.

In 2012 she is appointed full professor of rheumatology at the LUMC with special interest for “Aetiology and Clinimetrics of Osteoarthritis”. On March 8 2013 she delivered her inaugural lecture on “Osteoarthritis …there is more to it”.

Publications