“Our Favorite Disease to Beat”

Joe Hart, PhD, has been a sports enthusiast since he was a child, so it’s not too surprising that he pursued a career in athletic training, a field that paired his sports passion with health care. This work led to his interest in orthopaedics and research. Hart is now vice chair of the orthopaedics department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where he also serves as principal investigator for the first Arthritis Foundation-directed clinical trial aimed at preventing post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA). He is among the top researchers from UNC and eight other institutions across the country participating in the PIKASO trial (Preventing Injured Knees from Osteoarthritis: Severity Outcomes). PIKASO is examining the use of the drug metformin in people who are at high-risk for developing post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction.
 
Q: Tell us about your background.
I was born and raised in Connecticut, playing baseball, ice hockey and football through high school. I enjoyed camping, skiing and being outdoors, and I had a wonderful network of friends through being involved in sports, Scouts and other groups.

After going to Marietta College in Ohio to become an athletic trainer, I completed a post-professional master’s degree at West Virginia University, followed by several years of working in a high school-outreach position in a clinic. I completed a Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society summer internship with the Pittsburgh Pirates and loved every second of it! I also spent time organizing medical coverage for the West Virginia Special Olympics, including the summer and winter games as well as the basketball tournament. In addition, I provided outreach athletic training services to high schools in under-served rural communities in West Virginia where regular medical coverage for athletics programs wasn’t available.

Later, I completed a PhD in sports medicine at the University of Virginia (UVA), where I studied the relationship between low back pain and knee dysfunction. I built a research program in the Sports Medicine Division at UVA’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. I then moved to the kinesiology department, where I achieved a terminal, tenured academic rank while I continued to help develop the research program in the Department of Orthopaedics. As a kinesiology professor, I taught biomechanics for the undergraduate major program, the master’s in athletic training program and the sports medicine doctoral program. I took the position of vice chair of orthopaedics with UNC’s Department of Orthopaedics in 2022 to build a research program that supports interdisciplinary and collaborative musculoskeletal research centered around orthopedics.

Q: What drew you to the field of science and research, and arthritis research in particular?
While working full time as a clinical athletic trainer, I developed a program using an isokinetic machine and other functional outcomes to provide data-based outcomes assessments for patients in our clinic who were receiving hyaluronic acid injections for knee osteoarthritis (OA). Compiling results from this work is what initially excited me about the research process and led me to study lower body and knee injuries in patients recovering from orthopaedic injury and surgery. Since then, I have truly enjoyed learning about the human condition through research and innovation.  My goal is to create new options for patients and provide better access to the most novel and effective therapies. 

Q: Could you describe what you do with PIKASO?
I am the principal investigator for the UNC Clinical Trial Unit (CTU) site. I work with an exceptional team of investigators, including Brian Pietrosimone, Richard Loeser and Jeff Spang. 

Q: Do you expect PIKASO to affect patients either directly or indirectly?
Our hope is the PIKASO trial will help us learn more about helping people with severe knee ligament injuries who opt for surgical reconstruction as a way of enhancing post-surgery recovery and safety. I am continually amazed by the talented and skilled surgeons I’ve worked with over the years and how much they truly care about each patient’s well-being. This is what makes me most excited about being a part of the Arthritis Foundation CTU and the PIKASO trial.

Q: What are you excited about in OA in general, and what should patients be excited about?
I’m excited to stop OA from happening! OA is our favorite disease to beat, and I am committed and honored to support this important effort with my incredible team of collaborators, the other CTU’s around the country and the Arthritis Foundation.

Q: What else would you like to share about your involvement with arthritis research?
As time passes and my experiences with OA research increases, I’m more and more interested and excited in the outcomes and treatment options — especially because my knees are starting to hu