March 23, 2020—(BRONX, NY)—Clement Tagoe, M.D., Ph.D., has been named chief of the Division of Rheumatology at Einstein and Montefiore, effective April 1. He replaces Chaim Putterman, M.D., who helped make the rheumatology division a national leader in its field during his 26 years here.

Dr. Tagoe joined Einstein and Montefiore in 2004 and currently serves as a professor of medicine and director of clinical operations in the division of rheumatology.

“Clem is a respected physician-scientist and a fantastic leader,” said Yaron Tomer, M.D., chair of the department of medicine at Einstein. “This is a well-deserved promotion and I wish him great success in this new role.”

A native of Ghana, Dr. Tagoe earned his medical degree from the University of Ghana Medical School. He went on to complete his Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. In 1993, he came to the United States for internal medicine residency training at New York Hospital Medical Center in Queens, where he was chief resident. A rheumatology fellowship and postdoctoral fellowship at New York University followed.

Clem is a respected physician-scientist and a fantastic leader. This is a well-deserved promotion and I wish him great success in this new role.

Yaron Tomer, M.D.

Before embarking on his first clinical role, Dr. Tagoe worked as a research associate at New York University (NYU) and senior research associate at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Dr. Tagoe also served as an attending rheumatologist in the Arthritis Clinic at NYU’s Hospital for Joint Diseases, and as co-director of the Arthritis Clinic at New York Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Building Centers of Excellence

Throughout his career, Dr. Tagoe has used teamwork as an engine for change, focusing on building specialized healthcare teams. He introduced novel technologies, including musculoskeletal ultrasound, to deliver expert care to rheumatology patients. He steered the development of centers of excellence in the various subspecialties within rheumatology, including the new spondyloarthritis and vasculitis clinics.

As division chief, Dr. Tagoe plans to expand Einstein and Montefiore’s centers of excellence model to increase access to care for patients. “Ultimately, we envision a division in which patient care, quality improvement, house staff and fellowship training, research, and serving our community evolve as a seamless whole,” Dr. Tagoe said.

Research Focus

Dr. Tagoe’s previous research interests focused on understanding the biology and clinical presentation of transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis with the TTR V122I (pV142I) mutation, which affects about 3.5% of African Americans.

His current research focuses on defining the musculoskeletal manifestations of autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD), the most common autoimmune disease, which affects about 5% of the population. Although AITD is frequently considered a form of single organ autoimmunity, Dr. Tagoe’s research suggests that it is associated with a significant number of rheumatic syndromes.

The Division of Rheumatology is an active recruitment site for The Consortium of Rheumatology Researchers of North America (CORRONA) for rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis. Dr. Tagoe has been the site principal investigator in these studies. In addition, he has served as a grant reviewer for both domestic and international organizations and as a reviewer to several important journals and has contributed to dozens of peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals and books.