Dana Ascherman, MD, Receives Arthritis Foundation’s 2025 Pamela Massey Partners for Patients Award

The Arthritis Foundation has awarded its highest physician honor, the Pamela Massey Partners for Patients Award, to Dana Ascherman, MD, chief, UPMC Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology.

The award honors a health care provider or allied health professional, like a physical or occupational therapist, who has demonstrated a deep commitment to improving patient lives both in their clinical practice and in the broader mission delivery work of the Arthritis Foundation.

Dr. Ascherman received the award at the foundation’s national volunteers Pathways Conference in Seattle from March 27 to March 28.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, “This award acknowledges the value of health care providers and allied health professionals teaming up with patients and signifies our long-term commitment to developing such partnerships.”

An international leader in the field of autoimmune diseases and idiopathic inflammatory myopathy, Dr. Ascherman is a talented translational researcher and highly respected clinician.

“As a trained rheumatologist, he’s impacted the lives of countless patients over the years with his quiet, gentle, and dry humor approach. Arthritis is his life's work, and he remains strongly committed to connecting his patients to the Arthritis Foundation for the additional education, resources, and community connections we provide,” says award nominator Lara McCune, senior executive director, PA and Delaware, Arthritis Foundation.

For Dr. Ascherman, advocacy is inseparable from the practice of rheumatology itself.

“Unlike other specialties, you’re not focused on one body system or one organ,” he says. “Rheumatology is about treating the whole person, understanding how their condition affects their lives and helping connect them with resources that can really make a difference.”

Ms. McCune adds that Dr. Ascherman has been instrumental in connecting the Arthritis Foundation to staff, invited the organization to participate/educate during their clinical meetings, and encouraged his staff to get involved with the foundation’s local events and share that information with their patients.

Dr. Ascherman also serves on the Arthritis Foundation’s local leadership board and the Jingle Bell Run 5K committee.

“He always attends and actively helps with each of our events and board meetings,” Ms. McCune says. “For the Walk to Cure Arthritis and JBR, he creates a team every year, raises money, and recruits participants.”

Also, a passionate runner, Dr. Ascherman annually participates in the Pittsburgh Marathon and helps raise funds for the Arthritis Foundation. This year, he ran the NYC Marathon with the same objective.

“I can always count on him to be the first person to volunteer to help, no matter the task. You will find him volunteering to host board meetings, hanging Jingle Bell Run flyers at local run stores or along run trails, hauling boxes at the start of event days, thanking event sponsors, and introducing staff to colleagues to help make key connections,” Ms. McCune says.