Professor of Medicine
Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Kenneth Saag, is the Jane Knight Lowe Professor of Medicine, Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in Birmingham, and Professor of Epidemiology at the UAB School of Public Health. He is a native of Chicago. Following studies in engineering at the University of Michigan, he returned to Chicago for medical school and Internal Medicine Residency and Chief Residency at Northwestern University. He then traveled to the University of Iowa for his rheumatology and epidemiology training and remained on the faculty until moving to UAB in 1998.
Dr. Saag is Vice Chair for the UAB Department of Medicine. He is Principal Investigator of AHRQ-funded T32 in Health Services, Outcomes, and Effectiveness Research; the AHRQ-funded K12 in Patient Centered Outcomes Research; and the NIH-funded TL1 and KL2 connected to the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science. He completed two 5-year funding cycles of a K24 Mid-Career Award in Patient Oriented Research. He has been primary or secondary mentor for more than 35 trainees and is recipient of the American College of Rheumatology 2013 Excellence in Investigative Mentoring Award.
He is Director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases UAB Center of Research Translation in Gout and Hyperuricemia, and founding Director of the AHRQ Deep South Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics and the UAB Outcomes Research Center. He’s published over 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts; authored over 100 reviews, editorials, and book chapters. He recently published the second edition of the Diagnosis and Management of Osteoporosis.
Dr. Saag is Secretary of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Board of Directors, and is on the ACR Finance Committee, co-developer of the 2008 and 2011 ACR Recommendations on the Treatment of RA, and served as a board member. He’s the Immediate Past President of the National Osteoporosis Foundation, the first rheumatologist to hold this position.
Dr. Saag disclosed the following conflicts of interest for this workshop:
- Sources of Research Funding:
- NIH (NIAMS, NCATS, NCMRR), AHRQ, PCORI
- Industry: Amgen, Mereo, Radius
- Past president, Board of Trustee, National Osteoporosis Foundation
- Secretary, American College of Rheumatology
- Associate Editor, Therapeutic Advances in Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Consultant: Amgen, Radius, Roche