“I love doing research in the field of rheumatology”

The AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship has supported training of young researchers since 2004. Learn more about how it is helping last year’s awardee, Dr. med. Cosimo Bruni, University Hospital Zurich, to improve his skills as a researcher in rheumatology and find out how to apply for the AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship 2022!

The AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship provides young scientists with funding for innovative educational programs in the field of clinical or translational rheumatological research. In 2021, Dr. med. Cosimo Bruni, Department of Rheumatology at the University Hospital Zurich, convinced the independent national jury board, consisting of Prof. Axel Finckh, Genève, Prof. Diego Kyburz, Basel, Prof. Thomas Hügle, Lausanne, Prof. Oliver Distler, Zürich, Prof. Johannes v. Kempis, St. Gallen, and Prof. Paul Hasler, Aarau, with his application and was awarded with the AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship at the Swiss Rheumatology Congress in Lausanne in September 2021. In the following interview, Dr. med. Cosimo Bruni explains how the AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship Program has supported him with his postgraduate education and shares his experiences with the application process.

Dr. med. Cosimo Bruni

1. You were awarded with the AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship last year. Can you tell us which project you received the support for?

When I applied for the AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship last year, I was at the end of my Ph.D. program in clinical sciences as a physician and realized how much I love doing research in the field of rheumatology. Therefore, I wanted to expand my research skills, and thought that this would help to establish my position as researcher in the field of rheumatology and probably also to build my own research group. I believe that it is important for researchers in rheumatology to have a strong basis in statistics and epidemiology, which is fundamental for creating a project plan, suitable data collection and interpretation of the results in the right way. This is the reason why I chose a virtual postgraduate master program in Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Milano Bicocca, which I could easily match with my work routine due to its flexible structure. I am very thankful to be able to benefit from this great opportunity due to the support by the AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship.

2. What is the current status of your master program?

The postgraduate master program started in November 2021 and has a total duration of 18 months. It includes ten modules of different classes and courses, including epidemiology, two or three courses on biostatistics but also modules on study design for interventional studies, observational studies as well as meta-analysis – all necessary methodology for this kind of research.

3. How does the support by the AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship help rheumatology research in general?

In my opinion, it is very important that rheumatologists who want to spend their lives in research have confidence in what they do and in how they do it, so they can lead their own groups and also actively collaborate with other team members. The AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship Program can support researchers in similar positions like me to attend a dedicated course and gain knowledge on a specific topic, which might otherwise be difficult to arrange.

4. Why should one apply to this program?

A postgraduate master course like the one I am enrolled at requires a lot of time and dedication. I spend at least one day per week on activities related to this course. A program like the AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship is key to success for such educational opportunities since in my case, it does not only cover the fees for the course itself, but also the time that I need to attend the lectures and to study on my own. Therefore, the AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship provides me with an incredible opportunity, and I am extremely happy that I have been awarded with it.

5. How was the application process?

Overall, the application process was easy and smooth. It did not take a very long time to prepare the required documents, which included a motivational letter, a description of the program I wanted to attend, and a recommendation letter by my supervisor at the University of Zurich. Submitting the application was very straight forward and I immediately got notified that all my documents had been received. Of course, I was very happy when I finally received the information that I had been selected for the AbbVie Rheumatology Fellowship Program. The awarding ceremony was held during a beautiful gala dinner in Lausanne at the Musée Olympique. It felt very nice to be awarded in front of so many peers from the rheumatology field. Furthermore, it was a great occasion to finally meet colleagues in person after a long time of virtual events and a good opportunity to establish contacts, which could be very important for future collaborations. I really enjoyed it!