Lexington, KY - Leslie Crofford always wanted to be a doctor, but she was uncertain about whether she could succeed at it. Her mother was a nurse and her father, a doctor and professor at Vanderbilt, where Crofford spent much of her free time playing in his laboratory. She signed up for nursing school but quickly left to pursue medical studies. "One semester; that was it," she laughed. "I left, got a B.S. in chemistry from Vanderbilt and then my M.D. from the University of Tennessee."
Crofford came to Lexington and U.K. HealthCare in 2004 from the University of Michigan, having completed her Board certifications in internal medicine in 1989, and rheumatology in 1992 and 2003. To read her resume is like reading Gray's Anatomy for Students. In short, her research interests include rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia epidemiology, genetics, autoimmune disease, stem cell transplants in scleroderma, and treatment of polymyositis/dermatomyositis.
Her passion, however, is most obvious when she talks about the Kentucky Women's Health Registry and the Center for the Advancement of Women's Health. "The Center for Women's Health is a one-stop shop for health care, addressing gender-specific health issues for women." The Women's Health Registry is a centerpiece of its mission. The Registry is the only statewide health registry of its kind in the nation, and other states have demonstrated a strong interest in replicating the program.
It's widely known that gender differences among patients and research subjects have not been addressed, Crofford told me. The assumption has been that women and men react to drugs and treatment in the same way, but recent studies have shown the fallacy of this. Crofford said that "the Registry will give researchers, health care providers and epidemiologists a much better understanding of health and disease among women in Kentucky." When the Registry was started in 2006, more than 2,700 women signed up for the longitudinal study. Crofford hopes to add another 2,500 participants each year. It's impossible to talk with Dr. Crofford without catching her enthusiasm for this project Ö and signing on to participate in the research. "Tell your girl friends; tell your family members about this," she called out as I left.
She enjoys research and having relationships with her patients over the long term. In her teaching/mentoring role at the Center, she particularly enjoys working with young people. "They have a passion for what they do. They generate new solutions and push the edge of what we know about medicine."
When there's time, Crofford loves to travel with her husband, play golf, read the news and walk her two chocolate Labs, Boo and Scout - names chosen from a favorite movie, "To Kill a Mockingbird." The last book she's read? Obama's Audacity of Hope.
The winner of many awards and recognition for her work, she considers being president of the American College of Rheumatology Research and Education Foundation a labor of love. "We've raised $2 million for grants that will ensure the future of rheumatology research - grants for training, recruiting and mentoring more young people in this field."