J. (Jos) Runhaar, PhD

Dr Jos Runhaar is an Associate Professor at the Department of General Practice of Erasmus MC. He was trained as Human Movement Scientist at the Vrije University Amsterdam. For his PhD, he performed the first ever RCT on the primary prevention of osteoarthritis, supervised by prof. Bierma-Zeinstra and prof. Koes. In 2023, dr. Runhaar was awarded the ´Rising Star Award for Clinical Research´ by the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI).

The research line of Dr. Runhaar focuses on the prevention and early treatment of OA. Identification of individuals at high-risk or in the early stages of the disease will allow for early interventions, when joint damage might still be reversible, pain is not chronic, and physical functioning is not heavily impaired. OA prevention and early treatment comes with many challenges. With his team, dr. Runhaar works towards solutions for the identification of individuals at risk of OA or with early-stage OA, maps and addresses motivation, barriers, and facilitators for the acceptance of and adherence to early interventions among patients and healthcare providers, develops valid outcome measures, designs and test new and existing interventions for the prevention of OA development and progression, and disseminates research results to all relevant stakeholders, such as patients with (early-stage) OA, society, healthcare providers, policymakers, and the OA research community.

Dr. Runhaar served different scientific committees, including the Research and Training Committee of OARSI (Chair), Program Committee, Ethics & Governance Committee, the Nomination Committee, and the Taskforce for the Development of Early Osteoarthritis Classification Criteria (Steering Committee and Working Group) of OARSI, the Scientific Advisory Board for the Dutch Arthritis Society, the Organizing Committee for the OARSI Imaging Workshop (co-Chair), Review Panels for Research Foundation – Flanders (BEL) and Versus Arthritis (UK), and multiple international Thesis Assessment Committees. 

Jos Runhaar's publications can be found here

Dr. Runhaar provides Evidence Based Medicine training to general practitioners in-training and is responsible for the Evidence Based Medicine curriculum in the specialized Emergency Care training for general practitioners.

The Editorial Board for Osteoarthritis Imaging (Elsevier), Guest Editor for Osteoarthritis & Cartilage Special Issue ‘OA Clinical Trials: Meeting Challenges with Solutions’ (Elsevier),

As main applicant, dr. Runhaar successfully obtained research funding from EULAR, ISAKOS, KNGF, OARSI, ReumaNederland, CSC, and ZonMw.
His work and expertise has been honored through

• the ‘Rising Star Award for Clinical Research’ by OARSI (2023)
• the Paper of the Year in Osteoarthritis & Cartilage Open (2023)
• the FOREUM Clinical Research Award at EULAR (2022)
• a Honorary Research Fellow at the Keele University, UK (2018-2021)