Michael Lockshin, MD, is Professor Emeritus of Medicine at HSS and the Director Emeritus of the Barbara Volcker Center for Women and Rheumatic Disease at Hospital for Special Surgery. He retired from HSS on January 31st, 2023.

Dr. Michael D. Lockshin is one of America’s preeminent experts in the long-term care of chronically ill patients. He is a pioneer in solving health-care issues that arise with the illnesses on which he has done his most renowned research – systemic lupus erythematosus, antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, and other autoimmune diseases which especially afflict women.

In November, 2022 Dr. Lockshin received the Distinguished Clinician Scholar ACR Award of Distinction. The Distinguished Clinician Scholar Award is awarded to a rheumatologist who has made outstanding contributions in clinical medicine, clinical scholarship, or education. He has received the Lupus Foundation of America’s 2012 National Leadership Award for Lupus Medical Advancement and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Arthritis Foundation in 2008. He was named a master of the American College of Rheumatology in 2003 and a Research Hero of the Arthritis Foundation in 2001. He is an honorary faculty member of Alpha Omega Alpha.

A world renowned researcher, Dr. Lockshin has authored nearly 300 research papers, book chapters, and books and has edited several conference proceedings and books. Dr. Lockshin was editor in chief of Arthritis & Rheumatism, the official publication of the American College of Rheumatology and the leading journal in the field worldwide.

He has written three books for the general reading public. Guarded Prognosis: A Doctor and his Patients Talk about Chronic Disease and How to Cope With It (Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux) was published in 1998. Dancing at the River’s Edge: A Patient and Her Doctor Negotiate a Life With Chronic Illness (Schaffner Press, Inc. 2009) is a personal dual memoir, written in collaboration with long-time patient Alida Brill. His latest book, The Prince at the Ruined Tower: Time, Uncertainty & Chronic Illness (Custom Databanks, Inc. 2017) explores seldom discussed issues of contemporary medical practice—how should and how do patients, doctors, insurers, and administrators respond when diagnoses are uncertain?

Dr. Lockshin has held senior management positions at The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He served first as Director of the Extramural Program of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and then as Acting Director of the Institute. This Institute is responsible for U.S. government research funding in the fields of rheumatology and dermatology. He also served as Senior Advisor to the Director at the NIH’s Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center.

Prior to joining NIH, Dr. Lockshin was a Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and a staff rheumatologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery and New York Hospital. Dr. Lockshin interned and did his residency at Bellevue Hospital and Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases; his fellowship in Rheumatic Diseases at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City.

Dr. Lockshin is a recognized leader in the field of rheumatology. He chaired the American Board of Internal Medicine Committee on Rheumatology, the committee which writes the exam that certifies all US rheumatologists in the subspecialty. He has held national offices and chaired committee at the Arthritis Foundation and the American College of Rheumatology (ACR.) He chaired the ACR Visual Aids Committee that produced the first Clinical Slide Collection. This collection is used by rheumatologists around the world to illustrate rheumatic diseases and their clinical and biological manifestations. He was the first chairman of the ACR standing Committee on Rheumatological Practice which investigated quackery in the field. He has served on the editorial boards of Arthritis & Rheumatism, Journal of Rheumatology, Lupus, American Journal of Reproductive Immunology, and other journals.

Dr. Lockshin is an original thinker who has brought together researchers from disparate fields to solve problems in the rheumatic disease area. He convened the first international Conference on Pregnancy and Rheumatic Disease and the first ever Conference on Gender, Biology, and Human Disease.

He was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Understanding the Biology of Sex and Gender Differences, its Committee to Review the CDC Anthrax Vaccine Safety and Efficacy Research Program, its Health Sciences Policy Board, and its Committee on (NIH) Centers of Excellence Programs.

Dr. Lockshin graduated cum laude from Harvard College with a BA in history and literature. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School.

See the Hospital for Special Surgery’s web site for more information.