Charles Peterfy, MD, PhD
About Us
Spire Sciences’ mission is to improve world health by helping bring new and better therapies into clinical use faster. We serve this cause by reducing uncertainty, time and cost in clinical trials through innovative imaging.
In contrast to contract research organizations and core laboratories which offer image analysis as one of many services and often outsource readings to clinical radiologists, Spire Sciences is focused exclusively on central image analysis and uses dedicated in-house radiologists who are specialized in clinical-trials and unsurpassed in reading performance.
Charles Peterfy, MD, PhD
Charles Peterfy, MD, PhD, is founder and CEO of Spire Sciences. Dr. Peterfy is an internationally recognized leader in imaging for clinical trials, and has been developing, validating and implementing innovative imaging techniques for 20 years. Dr. Peterfy is a board-certified radiologist with fellowship training from University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and a PhD in Pharmacology and Therapeutics from McGill University. He was attending radiologist at UCSF for 7 years where he also served as Director of Arthritis Research for the Osteoporosis and Arthritis Research Group. In 1998, Dr. Peterfy co-founded CCBR-Synarc Inc and served as its Chief Medical Officer until leaving to form Spire Sciences in 2009.
Dr. Peterfy has helped introduce numerous methods currently used in clinical trials. He was the first to develop and validate a technique for quantifying articular cartilage volume in the knee using MRI. He developed the WORMS (Whole-Organ MRI Score) system for multi-feature MRI assessment of the knee, the fixed-flexion technique for radiography of the knee in osteoarthritis, the SynaFlexer positioning device and projection phantom for reproducible radiography of the knee, and fixed-location joint-space width measurement for monitoring progression of osteoarthritis. Dr. Peterfy co-developed the RAMRIS (Rheumatoid Arthritis MRI Score) and PsAMRIS (Psoriatic Arthritis MRI Score) methods as part of the OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials) MRI Working Group, and invented the Syn-X-RA positioning frame and phantom for error-free radiography of the hand and foot in arthritis clinical trials, and the Syn-M-RA positioning device for reproducible MRI of the hand and wrist in arthritis trials. He chaired the Imaging Working Group of the NIH Osteoarthritis Initiative, and co-founded ISEMIR, the International Society for Extremity MRI in Rheumatology. Dr. Peterfy has authored over 150 scientific articles and book chapters, edited two textbooks and participated in numerous standardization committees, scientific advisory boards and expert panels for advancing imaging in clinical trials.