Laird Madison, assistant professor of medicine, is a co-investigator with Stern on the thyroid hormone project. He is interested in cellular physiology of thyroid hormone receptor expression and thyroid action on bone physiology. Madison is also involved in a lecture program funded by pharmaceutical companies. He speaks about bone health to primary care physicians and internists at local hospitals. In 1997 he presented over 20 lectures on this subject.
Most physicians know very little about new, effective drugs against osteoporosis.
With Ramsey-Goldman, Madison has been trying to develop a bone disease clinic at Northwestern Memorial Hospital that will integrate the skills of various specialists and unify the study and treatment of bone disease at the University. Use of steroids Ramsey-Goldman, associate professor of medicine, is a rheumatologist who brings a unique expertise to her evaluation of osteoporosis. She studies links between osteoporosis and lupus, a chronic, autoimmune inflammatory disease that affects primarily women. In one of her current projects, she is investigating steroids that are used to treat lupus-caused bone loss. She also recently completed a pilot study that examined bone fractures in organ-transplant patients who subsequently developed osteoporosis as a result of immunosupressive drug therapy.