Dr. C. Kent Kwoh and the UArizona Arthritis Center Featured in the Arizona Daily Star

Oct 23, 2022

Research being conducted by University of Arizona Arthritis Center Director C. Kent Kwoh, MD, was the subject of a feature story in the Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022, editions of the Arizona Daily Star. Authored by science reporter Patty Machelor, Dr. Kwoh's recent grant of over $3.4 million from the National Institutes of Health to study the determinants of rapid knee deterioration was the focus of this story.

To read the article in its entirety, please click on the link below:

UA Arthritis Center Using $3.4 million grant to study knees

About Dr. Kent Kwoh:

An internationally-recognized expert in the identification, development and progression of osteoarthritis and the characterization of pain patterns in osteoarthritis, Dr. C. Kent Kwoh serves as director of the University of Arizona Arthritis Center, one of the first four Centers of Excellence in the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He is a Professor of Medicine and Medical Imaging in the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson, Chief of the Division of Rheumatology, holds the Charles A.L. and Suzanne M. Stephens Endowed Chair in Rheumatology and serves as Director of the UA College of Medicine - Tucson Rheumatology Fellowship Program. He was named to these positions in July, 2013.

Dr. Kwoh earned his bachelor’s degree in honors biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1975 and his medical doctorate from the the University of Illinois-Chicago in 1979. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Illinois Hospitals in 1982 and a fellowship in rheumatology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in 1984. Before coming to the University of Arizona, Dr. Kwoh was the Director of Clinical Research at the University of Pittsburgh Arthritis Institute as well as a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology from 2000 until 2013. Simultaneously, he held a joint appointment in the Department of Epidemiology and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute while working as a staff physician in addition to being Rheumatology Section Chief in the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare Systems.

His major research interests are in outcome assessment and the examination of risk factors for the development and progression of a broad spectrum of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. His current work focuses on the identification of biomarkers – most notably MRI imaging biomarkers - for the development and/or progression of knee osteoarthritis and the characterization of knee pain patterns in osteoarthritis. He also has a major interest in the reduction and ultimately the elimination of racial disparities in the management of arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases. 

He is a member of the Arthritis Foundation, the American Federation for Clinical Research, the Osteoarthritis Research Society International, ISIS Fund Network of the Society for Women’s Health Research and was a founding fellow and member of the American College of Rheumatology. Dr. Kwoh has served on the editorial board of Osteoarthritis and Cartilage and Arthritis Care and Research and is an ad hoc reviewer for numerous other professional journals including Arthritis and Rheumatism, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, Arthritis Research and Therapy, Arthritis Care and Research, Osteoarthritis and Cartilage and the Journal of Rheumatology.

He has also been awarded numerous honors throughout his 40-year tenure as a rheumatologist and most recently earned one of the University of Arizona College of Medicine’s top honors: The Mentoring Award. He has mentored nearly 50 medical and doctoral students, residents and fellows. In addition, he was named as the University of Arizona Asian-American Faculty, Staff and Alumni Association's Outstanding Faculty award winner and in 2019 was named as the Medical Honoree for the Arthritis Foundation's Southern Arizona chapter.

Dr. Kwoh is the author or co-author of more than 300 scientific journal articles and book chapters and has total career research funding from the NIH of over $75 million – continuous since 1989.