Pediatric rheumatology pioneer, Dr. Brewer

• Copyright © 2015 by the American Academy of Pediatrics

A pediatric rheumatologist who wrote definitive books on juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and helped form the subspecialty, Earl J. Brewer Jr., M.D., FAAP, of Houston, died March 19. He was 86.

Dr. Brewer’s influences in pediatric rheumatology reached far. At the Academy, he organized and served as chair of the AAP Section on Rheumatology from 1981-’83. Twenty years later, the section established the endowed Earl J. Brewer Research Award to recognize pediatric rheumatology training fellows in clinical research.

Author of the criteria used to diagnose juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, Dr. Brewer helped establish and served as chair of the Pediatric Rheumatology Collaborative Study Group. The consortium of centers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico conducts clinical trials of therapeutic agents in children with rheumatic diseases. He also helped organize and served as chair of the pediatric component of the American College of Rheumatology.

Dr. Brewer was principal investigator on four studies on arthritis in children by 20 centers in the U.S. and the former U.S.S.R. He also headed multicenter studies of anti-arthritis medicines that led to Food and Drug Administration approval of several new drugs used in pediatrics.

In the late-1980s, he worked with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Maternal and Child Health Bureau and Surgeon General C. Everett Koop to establish family-centered, community-based, coordinated care for children with special needs. Later, Dr. Koop honored Dr. Brewer with the Surgeon General’s Exemplary Service Award.

Dr. Brewer completed his medical degree, internship and one year of residency at Baylor College of Medicine, followed by residency at Harvard Medical School and Texas Children’s Hospital. He founded and chaired the pediatric department of Kelsey Seybold Clinic, the Rheumatology Section and Division at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, and served as clinical professor at Baylor.

He is survived by his wife, Ria, children and grandchildren. Read Dr. Brewer’s Oral History on the AAP History Center website: bit.ly/1DvotCj.