Anastasia Madenidou:
Hello Professor Aletaha, and thank you for accepting our invitation to be interviewed. While I’m sure everyone within EMEUNET knows who you are, you may be interested to know that our newsletters are read well beyond Europe. To start, could you please tell us a bit about your background—where you are currently based, and what your clinical and academic roles involve?
Daniel Aletaha:
Thanks Anastasia. My background is quite straightforward—I’m a rheumatologist. I began my training many years ago at an academic institution in Vienna. There, I was first exposed to research, science, and teaching. I was fortunate to have a mentor who had been deeply involved with EULAR and had even served as EULAR President himself, about 20 years before me. That early exposure to EULAR as an organisation was incredibly formative.
I also consider myself lucky to have entered medicine at a time when rheumatology was undergoing a major transformation. There was a surge of new therapies being developed, and significant resources began flowing into the field, supporting basic, translational, and clinical research. I remember attending my first EULAR Congress in 1997 as a student—it was a relatively small event then, with fewer than 2,000 participants. Today, when you look at how the Congress has evolved, it’s truly remarkable.
In the early 2000s, it was also the time that we began thinking about how to support young rheumatologists, which led to early ideas around networking initiatives, like EMEUNET. I’m not surprised that today there’s now such strong global interest in supporting young people in rheumatology, following the concept of EMEUNET, which has become a model for many regional and national societies around the world, particularly in how it engages and supports the next generation of rheumatologists.
Anastasia Madenidou:
That’s true—thank you for your kind words. You mentioned EMEUNET earlier; You were one of its founding members. Now, as EULAR President, do you see that as a coincidence? Or has EMEUNET played a role in shaping your professional journey?
Daniel Aletaha:
No, I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all. In fact, I would hope that many of the past EMEUNET chairs will go on to become EULAR Presidents in the future. I think it’s a great example of a career track in action, and a great example of how engaging in an international setting at an earlier stage may help career development.
Anastasia Madenidou:
Yes, I completely agree. From my own experience as an EMEUNET Newsletter leader, EMEUNET is such a valuable introduction to the EULAR structure.
Daniel Aletaha:
Absolutely. It’s particularly important for those in academia, where career progression often starts later than in other medical paths. Academic clinicians often begin their professional careers later, as they need to complete full clinical training before they can even start focusing on research. That often puts them in their mid-30s before they begin publishing or getting involved academically, which delays their career development.
If EMEUNET can help bridge that gap—by giving young clinicians and researchers a platform for networking, international exposure, and academic engagement earlier in their careers—it can really accelerate their professional development.
Anastasia Madenidou:
Thank you. Turning now to your role as EULAR President—which is both prestigious and important, not only for the EULAR community but also for the wider rheumatology field—could you tell us a bit about what this role involves on a day-to-day basis?
Daniel Aletaha:
Yes, of course. So, the EULAR President is essentially the spokesperson for the Board. While the Board collectively makes many key decisions for EULAR, the President represents those decisions and helps steer the broader vision.
At the same time, the President is very closely involved with the operational core of the organisation—what I’d call the heart of EULAR—which is the EULAR Office. That’s where the real day-to-day work takes place: organising the annual congress, coordinating educational events, managing our communities, like EMEUNET, and ensuring all the initiatives run smoothly.
These activities are carried out by a team of dedicated professionals who are employed by EULAR. In contrast, the President and other board or council members are volunteers. We give our time freely, and we do it because we see it as an honour to serve the rheumatology mission.
It is incredibly rewarding to lead an organization like EULAR. It’s efficient, open to innovation, and flexible—it’s not a rigid structure. Of course, it has required a significant time commitment. Balancing it with my role as a department head, my research activities, and my personal life has been challenging. But it’s also been immensely enriching. I’ve never once regretted taking this path.
With two years as President, you can make a real impact, and then step into the Past President role, where you can continue to support the incoming president and board with institutional knowledge and continuity. Having served as Treasurer, President-Elect, and now President, I will have spent six years on the EULAR Board. It’s been a truly rewarding journey.
Anastasia Madenidou:
I’m so glad to hear that. It really sounds like your presidency has been both a meaningful experience and a way to give back to the rheumatology community—which is lovely. Moving now to next question; With your clinical responsibilities, academic work, and presidency, how do you manage it all? How do you switch off and find time for yourself and your family?
Daniel Aletaha:
That’s a great question—and one I am asked quite often. Honestly, I think the key is simply enjoying what you do. When you’re passionate about your work, it doesn’t feel like it’s consuming your time, even when it does take up a lot of it.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you never feel tired, but I’ve never felt truly stressed or overwhelmed—not because I’m particularly stress-resistant, but because I try to focus on what really matters. It is important to learn to distinguish between the few truly important problems and the many smaller issues that don’t need to be treated like crises. If you treat every issue, conflict, or problem like it is the most important one, you’ll quickly burn out.
In my academic life, I try to build a strong team around me—people who are creative, skilled, and who complement my strengths and weaknesses. It means to surround yourself also with colleagues who enjoy doing the things you don’t enjoy so much, and that creates balance. Having such a team means I can delegate with confidence, which is essential. And delegation, in turn, requires trust—something that’s unfortunately sometimes missing in the academic world. If you can’t trust others, you’ll end up doing everything yourself and wondering why you’re overwhelmed. I’m fortunate to work with people I trust completely.
So really, there’s no magic formula. You have to love what you do, trust the people around you, and be willing to share responsibilities with those who are both capable and motivated. If you find that balance, everything becomes much more manageable—and even enjoyable.
Anastasia Madenidou:
That’s really inspiring—thank you for sharing those insights, especially what you said about trust and having the right people around you. It’s such an important reminder of the value of strong, supportive teams. This interview will be published just ahead of the EULAR Congress. Could you share with us what we should look forward to this year? And do you have any tips for first-time attendees?
Daniel Aletaha:
Oh, that’s always a difficult question! What to look forward to really depends on who you are, where you are in your career, and what you’re hoping to get out of the experience.
We had a wonderful Congress in Vienna—I’ve heard from all sides that it was one of the best ever. That does mean expectations for Barcelona are high—and rightly so. We’re working hard to match, if not exceed, that level, especially with the scientific programme.
But again, what you experience depends on your focus. If you’re early in your career and looking for educational or networking opportunities, there are plenty of sessions and spaces for that. You’ll naturally be drawn to different tracks and events than someone involved in large international research collaborations, for example. Many people use the Congress as a chance to have dedicated meetings with colleagues, some of which are even embedded in the programme.
My main piece of advice; Plan ahead. It might sound simple, but many people overlook it. Use the Congress app—it’s excellent. Go through the programme, mark what you don’t want to miss, and build your schedule. Of course, there’s the option to catch up on-demand afterward, but the live experience is entirely different. That’s also why, after the pandemic, we made the conscious decision to return to fully in-person Congresses—and I believe it was absolutely the right move.
Anastasia Madenidou:
That’s great advice—checking the programme in advance really helps you be more focused and get the most out of the Congress. We’re always curious about what goes on behind the scenes. Speaking from personal experience—having helped organise the British Society for Rheumatology’s national conference—I found it quite eye-opening to see how a scientific programme comes together. So very briefly: how are the major decisions for the EULAR Congress made, such as selecting the host city?
Daniel Aletaha:
That’s a great question. So one thing people often wonder about is how the congress host city is chosen. And the truth is, there are actually very few cities in Europe that can accommodate a Congress of EULAR’s scale. When you consider venue capacity, hotel availability, infrastructure—those logistical aspects limit our options quite a bit. The reason we sometimes return to the same cities is quite simple—there just aren’t that many cities in Europe that can accommodate a congress of EULAR’s size. We also try to remain economically sensible; some venues and cities are incredibly expensive, which we have to consider carefully.
Barcelona, for instance, is a great city with a strong venue, and even though it’s quite warm in June, it remains one of the more cost-effective and accessible options compared to others.
That said, there’s a clear and growing interest—one that began even before my term—to expand and explore new host cities. We’re actively considering five to seven different cities for each future Congress. But it’s not just about size—these cities also need to have the right availability within our fixed time window, which is typically early to mid-June. We try to avoid dates that fall too early or too late because people have come to associate the EULAR Congress with a specific time of year.
Ultimately, the Board makes the final decision, and the Congress location for the following year is usually announced during the current year’s Congress.
Anastasia Madenidou:
That’s fascinating—it’s clearly a much more complex process than I imagined. It’s not just a matter of saying, “Let’s go there next year.” There are so many logistical and practical considerations involved. Now, one final question; Looking ahead, what do you see as the future of EULAR, EMEUNET, or even rheumatology more broadly?
Daniel Aletaha:
That’s a big question, but a very timely one. We’re living through politically complex times globally. We’ve seen, for example, that the ACR is already facing some challenges due to political pressures in the US.
At the same time, I believe the future for EULAR and European rheumatology is very promising. EULAR is increasingly establishing itself as a global leader in the field—not just within Europe. Going forward, we need to ensure we’re addressing the needs of underserved regions as well. There’s a common misconception that rheumatic diseases aren’t a priority in low-resource settings because people assume there are “more urgent” health issues. But in reality, this means rheumatology care is often severely lacking in those areas.
That’s why we’re working to strengthen collaboration with other regional organisations—in Africa, America, and the Asia-Pacific region. And I can now share, perhaps as a bit of a preview, that we’re establishing an equity fund. This fund will support projects aimed at implementing and expanding access to rheumatology care in under-resourced regions across the world.
On the technological front, I’m optimistic. There’s a lot of discussion about AI and whether doctors will be replaced—but I don’t believe that. I think AI will support us in making better clinical decisions. It will help us make better sense of data—more than we ever could manually.
For example, we currently glance at an individual patient’s data or images and interpret them qualitatively. But in the future, AI could help us interpret those in more detailed, data-driven ways. Genetic data, polygenic risk scores, and image analysis will become more integrated into everyday care—not just research. And this will be especially powerful in a field like rheumatology, which deals with highly complex and heterogeneous diseases. That’s the future I see: not replacing doctors, but empowering them.
I truly believe rheumatology is one of the most important fields in medicine. When you look at the impact on people’s lives, it’s significant—rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases are the number one cause of work disability in Europe, and the second most common reason for visiting a doctor.
Anastasia Madenidou:
Well, yes—I suppose we’re a bit biased in this room, being rheumatologists! But you’re absolutely right—the burden of disability caused by these conditions is substantial, and it’s something we need to address more directly.
Daniel Aletaha:
Exactly. I actually think we often underestimate our importance as rheumatologists. There’s this lingering feeling within the specialty—almost like we’re somehow less significant than others. But we’re not. Rheumatology is a critical discipline, and we need to say that more confidently. That’s where advocacy comes in, and EULAR is doing a lot in this space. We’re working hard to raise awareness and put rheumatic diseases on the radar of funders, policymakers, and payers.
Anastasia Madenidou:
Well, I really appreciated your positive outlook and of course, the incredible advocacy work EULAR is doing to elevate the visibility of rheumatology. I know I’ve taken up a lot of your time—especially so close to the Congress—so I just want to thank you again for making space for this conversation.
Daniel Aletaha:
It was my pleasure—thank you!
The interview was organised by Victoria Konzett and Anastasia Madenidou, EMEUNET Newsletter Sub-Committee members
