Summer 2025 (Volume 35, Number 2)

Canadian Heroes in Rheumatology: Dr. Robert Inman

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Robert D. Inman, MD, was born and raised in Toronto. He completed his undergraduate degree (Eng Hon) at Yale University, and his medical degree at McMaster University. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Vanderbilt University and his fellowship in rheumatology at Cornell University, based at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. He was a Research Fellow at the Hammersmith Hospital in London before returning to a faculty position as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Cornell University. He then moved to the University of Toronto where he was appointed Associate Professor and attending physician at Toronto Western Hospital. He was subsequently promoted to Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Immunology, and appointed Director of Rheumatology at the University of Toronto.

He is currently Deputy Physician in Chief (Research), University Health Network and is Co-Director of the Schroeder Arthritis Institute. He is Co-Chair of the Centre for Immunology to Immunotherapy (Ci2i) at UHN. He is a Senior Scientist in the Krembil Research Institute (KRI) and is a member of the KRI Research Council. He is Co-Director of the Spondylitis Program at Toronto Western Hospital. He is Co-PI of the Spondyloarthritis Research Consortium of Canada (SPARCC) and is Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee of the Canadian Spondylitis Association.

Dr. Inman has received the Distinguished Investigator Award (2004) and the Master Award from the CRA, the Roger Demers Award from the Laurentian Rheumatology Congress, and the Distinguished Lecturer Award from the Western Alliance of Rheumatology. He also received the Dunlop-Dottridge Lectureship and the M. Ogryzlo Lectureship awards. He has been appointed a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and is a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. The University of Toronto has established the annual Inman Lectureship in his honour. He has been inducted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Dr. Inman has held several leadership positions within the American College of Rheumatology, including President of the Northeast Region of the ACR, and member of the ACR Board of Directors. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Medical Communicator Award from the ACR, the Jonas Salk Award from the March of Dimes, the Master Award from the ACR, and the Research Career Achievement Award from the Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN). He was Vice-President of the XXI PanAmerican Congress of Rheumatology, and was President of the VIII International Spondyloarthritis Symposium.

Dr. Inman is a member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the Spondylitis Association of America, the Executive Committee of the International Ankylosing Spondylitis Genetics Consortium (IGAS), and the Advisory Committee of the Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society (ASAS). He is an Associate Editor of Nature Reviews Rheumatology.

Dr. Inman’s research interests have focused on the interaction of infection with autoimmunity, initially examining clinical and experimental reactive arthritis. Studies currently probing the immune basis of axial spondyloarthritis are characterizing cells mediating the gut-joint axis, cytotoxic T cell oligoclonality and dysregulation, and epigenetic control of regulatory T cells. He has authored over 400 peer-reviewed publications and is Co-Editor of the Oxford Textbook of Axial Spondyloarthritis.

Over his career, Dr. Inman regards one of the key highlights being his role as supervisor and mentor for the large number of graduate students and research fellows who have trained in the Spondylitis Program at Toronto Western Hospital: “It has been especially gratifying to see our trainees return to their home universities across Canada and around the world and move into important leadership positions.” 

Dr. Inman sees the future of rheumatology as an exciting challenge. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI), electronic medical records (EMRs), new imaging modalities, and new targeted immunotherapies mean there are new opportunities at hand. Contemplating this changing landscape, he would offer the following as a challenge to his fellow members of the CRA:

Rheumatologists!
What are your common dreams?
What are your joint aspirations?