Vivian Bykerk

Currently, Dr. Bykerk is an active staff member in the Department of Rheumatology at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University Health Network. She serves as the Canadian Director of the Network of Early Arthritis Researchers (NEAR), Assistant Director of the Division of Advanced Therapeutics, and Director of the Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Program at the Rebecca MacDonald Centre for Arthritis and Autoimmune Disease. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Bykerk received her medical degree from McMaster University in 1981. She completed her residency training in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto and her postgraduate training in Rheumatology at McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec. She trained in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at McMaster University.

Dr. Bykerk was the winner of the Mount Sinai Hospital Clinical Research Competition in 1985 and was awarded a Canadian Arthritis Society Fellowship from 1985-1987. She received the American College of Rheumatology's Senior Rheumatology Scholar Award in 1989. Dr. Bykerk served as the Director of the Division of Rheumatology at Mississauga's Credit Valley Hospital from 1987-2000.

Dr. Bykerk has an active clinical practice, focusing primarily on early inflammatory arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoporosis. She has been the Chair of the Therapeutics Committee of the Canadian Rheumatology Association since 2004 and currently sits on the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism Joint Task force to update the classification criteria for rheumatoid arthritis and on the OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trials) Biomarker Research group. Her research interests are in identifying predictors for and best practices to improve outcomes in patients with new onset rheumatoid arthritis.