Dr. Stephanie Finzel heads the Clinical Trials Unit Rheumatology as a Senior Attending Physician and is a lecturer at the University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany. Her research focus is the validation of imaging tools such as High-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) and musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) as outcome parameters for use in randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs). Dr. Finzel has had extensive methodological training trough her being a member (and former fellow) of the OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials) group. She is regularly publishing on the validation and methodology of musculoskeletal imaging tools. Since 2011 she is the European co-chair of the ‘Study grouP for xtrEme-Computed Tomography in RheumAtology’ (SPECTRA)-collaboration, a consortium of researchers from rheumatology, radiology, and epidemiology that set the common goal of validating HR-pQCT as an imaging outcome tool in RCTs.
Another research focus is the characteristics and triggers of Haemochromatosis Arthropathy (HA), an arthropathy occurring in Hereditary Haemochromatosis. Dr. Finzel is a founding member of the Haemochromatosis Arthropathy Research Initiative (HARI). Furthermore, she is the co-chair of the EULAR Task Force on the ‘Development of classification criteria for haemochromatosis arthropathy’.
The creation of classification criteria for HA will set the key stone for future clinical therapeutic RCTs involving patients with HA.