Originators
Felix Eckstein, MD
Professor Eckstein has been the Director of the Institute of Anatomy at Paracelsus Private Medical University, Salzburg, Austria, since 2004. His research focuses on integrating imaging methods to understand the morphology, function and disease of musculoskeletal tissues, particularly osteoarthritis. In 2010, he received the Clinical Research Award of OARSI, granted at the World Congress of Osteoarthritis in Brussels, Belgium.
Professor Eckstein studied Medicine in Freiburg and Heidelberg and received scholarships to study at Bristol University (U.K.) and the University of Innsbruck (Austria). From 1991 through 2004, he worked at the Institute of Anatomy at LMU in Munich, Germany, where he passed his "Habilitation". He was President of the German Society of Biomechanics (DGfB) from 2002 to 2003, board member of the DGfB from 2000 to 2005, Secretary-General of the Osteoarthritis Research Society (OARSI) from 2005 to 2006, and board member of OARSI from 2005 to 2010. In 2003, Professor Eckstein founded Chondrometrics GmbH, a spinoff company that produces and licenses software for cartilage, meniscus, muscle and adipose tissue segmentation and data analysis.
As a board member of the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI), Professor Eckstein founded the International Workshop on Imaging in Osteoarthritis in 2007 and organized the first meeting in Ainring, Germany, with 126 participants. He was co-organizer of two subsequent annual workshops in Boston (2008) and Leeds (2009) and organizer of the 5th workshop, held in Salzburg, Austria, in 2011.
Professor Eckstein has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed international journal articles and more than 20 review articles, and book chapters in cartilage and bone research. In addition, he serves as Associate Editor of "Cell Tissue Organs" and "Annals of Anatomy".
Ali Guermazi, MD, PhD
Dr Guermazi is a Professor of Radiology & Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. He is one of the three founders of the International Workshop on Osteoarthritis Imaging. Dr Guermazi’s research focuses on imaging the musculoskeletal system, especially in characterizing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-ray changes in osteoarthritis (OA). He has been repeatedly involved in studies on meniscus, cartilage, synovitis and bone marrow lesions in knees, hips and spine. As a result, he is highly familiar with how best to acquire the images that optimize their assessment and measure these lesions. Recognized for scientific contributions to the MRI-based diagnosis and disease progression assessment of OA, he has been an MRI reader for assessing meniscus, cartilage, synovitis and bone marrow lesions in extensive NIH-funded studies (e.g., the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (MOST), the Health Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) study, the Boston Osteoarthritis Knee study (BOK), and the Framingham study). In addition, Dr Guermazi is a principal investigator (PI) for several NIH-funded OAI ancillary projects. His work also focuses on imaging in sports medicine and especially the role of MRI in preventing sports injuries and predicting a return to play.
He is the founder and Director of the Quantitative Imaging Center (QIC) within the Department of Radiology at Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, a research group focusing on Musculoskeletal Radiology, especially MRI that provides radiological analysis services for industry, foundation or NIH-sponsored trials.
Professor Guermazi was the Deputy Editor of the musculoskeletal imaging section for the RADIOLOGY journal from 2013-2019. He has authored more than 560 peer-reviewed papers and made numerous scientific presentations at national and international osteoarthritis, rheumatology and radiology meetings.
David Hunter, MBBS, PhD, FRACP
Professor Hunter is the Florance and Cope Chair of Rheumatology, Professor of Medicine at University of Sydney, and Staff Specialist at Royal North Shore Hospital and North Sydney Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Centre in Australia. He is a rheumatology clinician researcher whose main research focus has been clinical and translational research in osteoarthritis (OA). His research is focused on a number of key elements in OA including (but not limited to) the epidemiology of osteoarthritis, the application of imaging to better understand structure and function with application to both epidemiologic research and clinical trials, novel therapies in disease management and heath service system delivery of chronic disease management.
A native of New Zealand and an Australian citizen, he earned his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, and Master of Sports Medicine at the University of New South Wales. He completed a fellowship in Rheumatology at the Royal Australian College of Physicians, a Masters of Sports Medicine from UNSW, and earned a Masters of Medical Science (Clinical Epidemiology) from the University of Newcastle. He established a full-time career in medical research in 1999 and received his PhD in 2001.
Professor Hunter organized the 2nd International Workshop on Imaging in Osteoarthritis in 2008 in Boston and the 6th workshop which was held in Hilton Head in 2012.