About
Donald Goldsmith, MD, has been a professor of pediatrics at Drexel University College of Medicine since 1992. He has served as a role model for numerous pediatric residents who have pursued careers in pediatric rheumatology, while also enthusiastically providing the pediatric education for many of the adult rheumatology fellowship programs in Philadelphia.
Dr. Goldsmith is the long-time pediatric editor for the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology. He developed the PEDS group, a consortium of four regional pediatric academic rheumatology centers, and has served as an ACR Pediatric Rheumatology Visiting Professor. He is an active member of the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Alliance and Pediatric Rheumatology Collaborative Study Group. At St Christopher’s Hospital for Children, he is a past president of the medical staff, past director of the Office for Continuing Medical Education, the current president of the Alumni Association and associate chair for faculty development.
In November 2012, Dr. Goldsmith was recognized as a master of the American College of Rheumatology, one of the highest honors the College bestows to members who have made outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology. He was one of only 16 pediatric rheumatologists ever so honored at that time. Most recently he was a core member for the Choosing Wisely Committee of the American College of Rheumatology for Pediatric Rheumatology. In 2016, he was the invited speaker for the 4th annual H. Ralph Schumacher Lectureship — "The Expanding Mosaic of Autoinflammatory Diseases." In 2017, he was recognized by his alma mater, the University of Vermont College of Medicine, with a Distinguished Academic Achievement Award.
Donald Goldsmith, MD, is board certified in pediatrics, rheumatology, and allergy and immunology. He has a special interest in the effects of physical conditioning on functional health assessment in children with rheumatic disorders and therapeutic agents for the treatment of juvenile arthritis.
Dr. Goldsmith is chief of the Section of Rheumatology at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. His foremost contributions to the field of pediatric rheumatology include the earliest report of post-streptococcal reactive arthritis in children, the description and labeling of a previously undefined inflammatory disorder as “neonatal onset multisystem inflammatory disease” (NOMID, now identified as one of the primary autoinflammatory disorders), and the development of the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ), which still the most widely used assessment tool for juvenile idiopathic arthritis worldwide.
His other notable clinical interests include recognition of arthritis associated with cystic fibrosis and the diagnosis of childhood reflex neurovascular dystrophy through nuclear imaging. More recently he has focused on the diagnosis and management of hyper IgD with periodic fever syndrome (HIDS).
