Expert Directory

Jeffrey R. Curtis, MD, MS, MPH

Marguerite Jones Harbert-Gene V. Ball, MD Professor of Medicine
Co-Director, UAB Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics Research (PEER) Unit
Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, AL

Jeffrey R. Curtis, MD, MS, MPH, is a professor of medicine in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He received his medical degree and master of public health degree from Oregon Health & Sciences University. He subsequently completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University and a fellowship in Rheumatology at UAB. He completed a graduate program in Clinical Informatics at Stanford University and received his master of science degree in Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is board certified in both Rheumatology and Clinical Informatics.

Dr Curtis holds the Harbert-Ball Endowed Professorship in Rheumatology and Immunology at UAB. His major research emphasis is on evaluating the safety and comparative effectiveness of medications for rheumatic diseases. He also conducts both investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA), including large pragmatic trials. He is the co-director of the UAB Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics Research (PEER) Unit. PEER uses multiple large and linked data sources to study comparative effectiveness questions across multiple chronic diseases. These data sources include national administrative data from Medicare and commercial health plans, electronic health records data, and large registries. He was awarded the Henry Kunkel Young Investigator Award by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) in 2012 and was accepted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2016.

His research interests include the evaluation of the efficacy, comparative effectiveness, and safety of the medications used to treat RA and spondyloarthritis. He served on the Core Expert Panel for the ACR’s 2008, 2012, and 2015 Recommendations for the Use of Nonbiologic and Biologic Disease Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs in RA. He was the deputy director for a collaborative project between the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and a number of academic centers studying the safety of biologic agents using multiple, pooled national data sources. He is the co-principal investigator of the technology (app)-based, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute–funded Patient Powered Research Network ArthritisPower registry, focused on RA, psoriasis, and PsA. He also leads the multicenter National Institutes of Health–funded large, pragmatic, randomized controlled VERVE trial  examining the safety and effectiveness of the live herpes zoster vaccine in patients receiving biologic agents. He is a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Herpes Zoster Vaccines Work Group. In 2015, he was appointed as a member to the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee.

Dr Curtis also studies risk factors for and outcomes of osteoporosis. He was a member of the ACR’s task force to update recommendations for the management of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis. He served on the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) Task Force on Atypical Subtrochanteric and Diaphyseal Femoral Fractures.

Dr Curtis is a member of the ACR, the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology, the American Medical Informatics Association, and the ASBMR. He has been on the editorial boards for Arthritis & Rheumatology, Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety, and Arthritis Care & Research. He has authored more than 450 peer-reviewed manuscripts, review articles, and book chapters.