Patience H. White, MD is the chief public health officer of the Arthritis Foundation – the nation’s largest national, nonprofit health agency working on behalf of the 43 million Americans with doctor diagnosed arthritis and related diseases. In addition to her work at the national office of the Arthritis Foundation, she is a professor of medicine and pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and teaches a Health Policy seminar for Stanford University at the Stanford in Washington campus in Washington DC.
Before assuming her current position at the Arthritis Foundation in 2004, she served as the director of the Division of Adult Rheumatology, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and director of Pediatric Rheumatology, the Masters in Medical Education program and the Adolescent Employment Readiness Center at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. She has been a practicing rheumatologist caring for both adult and children with rheumatic diseases for over 25 years.
She has been a consultant for the President’s Task Force for Employment of People with Disabilities, Social Security Administration, Bureau of Maternal and Child Health and chairman of the National Arthritis Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administrations Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. She served as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy fellow on the Senate Finance Committee in 2000-2001 focusing on health care financing. She was involved with the development of the National Arthritis Action Plan. Some of her honors and awards include the Newsweek/CBS National American Achievement Award, the State of Maryland’s Healthcare Professional of the Year Award, Woman of Valor Award from B’nai Brith Women, and the Outstanding Service award from the George Washington University.
In addition to Dr. White’s academic accomplishment she has authored numerous books and articles in such publications as the New England Journal of Medicine and Pediatrics. Much of her published work is in the health services research area and focuses on approaches to overall system change to improve the long term outcome of youth with disabilities as they move into the world of work and adult medical care.
Dr. White received a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College, a master of science degree from Dartmouth Medical School, a doctor of medicine degree from Harvard Medical School, and a master’s in Education from George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, a teaching fellowship in rheumatology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a pediatric rheumatology fellowship at Northwick Park Post Graduate Institute in London, England.