What is a Rheumatologist?
Rheumatologists are Physicians with specialty training (Internal Medicine Residency and Rheumatology Fellowship) in the diagnosis and treatment of over 100 types of arthritis and immune system diseases; specializing specifically in disorders of the bones, muscles, joints, and connective tissues. These illnesses are often referred to as autoimmune or Rheumatic diseases. The specialty’s strong foundation in Internal Medicine prepares these specialists to care for patients with the complex and changing nature of rheumatic diseases. The Doctors at the Rheumatology Center of Princeton encourage the formation of a close physician patient relationship so diseases and treatments can be followed and modified as needed. Your Rheumatologist may take the lead in diagnosing and caring for your condition, or work as a consulting physician to your primary care physician.
Dr. Gina Del Giudice, M.D., FACR, FACP
Dr. Del Giudice received her BA degree summa cum laude from Mount Holyoke College in 1982. There she was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and named a Mary Lyons and Sarah Williston Scholar. She graduated from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1986 and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha honor medical society. Dr. Del Giudice completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in 1989. From 1989 to 1990, she was Chief Medical Resident at Mount Sinai. Dr. Del Giudice completed a three year Rheumatic Diseases Fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery and a Clinical Research Fellowship at New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center. While at HSS, she was a recipient of a Lupus Foundation Grant. She has compiled many publications and is licensed to practice medicine in New Jersey and New York. She has received research grants to study the immunology of childhood psychiatric diseases while at Mount Sinai School of Medicine where she served as an Adjunct Clinical Instructor of psychiatry from 1995 to 1998. She also served as an Attending Physician at the Catholic Medical Center of Brooklyn and Queens and was a practicing member of University Medical Group in New Brunswick, NJ.
Dr. Del Giudice served on the Board of Trustees of the Eden Family of Autism Services from 2008-2014, is a member of The Board of Trustees of Rheuminations, Inc, and the Asch Family Foundation Funding Education and Research in Autism. She has been in private practice in Mercer County since 1999, when she established this Rheumatology group.
Michael J. Froncek, MD, MS, FACP, FACR
Dr. Froncek was born in northern New Jersey and educated at The Pingry School prior to attending the University of Rochester. There he graduated summa cum laude, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and also studied abroad for a year at University College, Oxford. He completed a summer research project in Oxford’s Department of Biochemistry for which he was awarded his degree with distinction in research. Dr. Froncek has a Masters Degree in Immunology and Microbiology from Rochester University. His medical education was completed at the University of Rochester as well. He subsequently completed his residency training at Baystate Medical Center, the western campus of Tufts University School of Medicine. Subsequently, he pursued his rheumatology fellowship training in the Arthritis and Rheumatism Branch of the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. While there, he assisted in clinical research protocols investigating Lupus Nephritis, Rheumatoid and Psoriatic Arthritis, Myositis, and Familial Mediterranean Fever. He then completed additional fellowship training at the University of Southern California, site of one of the oldest Lupus clinics in the country, and he remained there as Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine after entering private practice. During this time, he co-authored a chapter on immunology for Dan Wallace’s textbook of systemic lupus and was also featured on KABC news in Los Angeles. Prior to joining Dr Del Giudice, he has practiced rheumatology in California, northern New Jersey, and North Carolina.
Dr. Manpreet Parmar, M.D.
Dr. Parmar is a board-certified internal medicine physician and rheumatologist, who is trained in the musculoskeletal ultrasound and a variety of joint aspirations/injections.
She was born and raised in northern New Jersey. She completed her early education at Saint Ambrose School and Old Bridge High School (rank 7 of 800). Thereafter, she was accepted to the Schreyer Honors College at Pennsylvania State University where she received a Scholars Medal for a B.S. in Biology with Honors in 2012. She was awarded the Dean’s List and an academic excellence scholarship throughout all her semesters. Dr. Parmar achieved her MD degree at New Jersey Medical School in 2016, internal medicine residency at Robert Wood Johnson in 2019, and Rheumatology Fellowship at Dartmouth in 2021.
She has pursued several research and leadership endeavors. She has received awards for research and “exceptional patient care, attention to detail, and resolve in the outpatient setting.” She was awarded the NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant for Women in Science & Engineering and the Schreyer Honors College research grant, and her work culminated in an honors thesis paper and journal publications in Neural Development and Current Biology. She was also sponsored by the National Cancer Institute to research at the NJMS Cancer Center and presented at the American Medical Association research symposium. She has a particular interest in outpatient medicine and organized a quality improvement project at the Bristol-Myers-Squibb Community Health Center in Princeton, NJ. Dr. Parmar has also devoted time to teach as an Instructor of Medicine at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine and the NJMS Mini-Med School for pre-medical students. She highly values community service and has volunteered in an underserved clinic in Newark and an orphanage abroad in Andhra Pradesh, India.
During residency, Dr. Parmar developed a special passion for rheumatology, with a focus on scleroderma. She conducted research with Dr. Vivien Hsu at the Rutgers Health Scleroderma Program, exploring the relationship between the upper gastrointestinal disease and scleroderma. She has also been researching the significance of skin biomarkers in scleroderma with Dr. Michael Whitfield and Dr. Robert Simms at Dartmouth. To gain more insight into patients’ perspectives’ on their illnesses, Dr. Parmar has been volunteering in monthly patient support group meetings with the New England Chapter of the Scleroderma Foundation; she presents monthly educational sessions about scleroderma and leads an exercise initiative among the patients. She continues to place her efforts in patient advocacy as a member of the American College of Rheumatology Quality Measures Subcommittee.
Outside of the medicine, Dr. Parmar is an avid endurance athlete and has participated in the NYC Century Bike Tour and numerous half marathons to advocate for causes such as scleroderma.