ILD Treatment and Guidelines Save

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Speaker bios:

Dr. Janet Pope, MD, MPH, FRCPC
Dr Janet Pope is Professor of Medicine and member of the Division of Rheumatology at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, London, Canada. Dr Pope has published over 500 peer-reviewed articles and her research interests include studies in scleroderma, systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. Through the course of her career, Dr Pope has mentored more than 125 trainees. Dr Pope has received the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Canadian Rheumatology Association, Rheumatologist of the Year from the Ontario Rheumatology Association, as well as the Department of Medicine Research Achievement Award and the Dean’s Award of Excellence in Research from Western University. She has been inducted into the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Dr. Elena K. Joerns, M.D., M.P.H.
Elena K. Joerns, M.D., M.P.H., specializes in autoimmune interstitial lung disease, with an emphasis on interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features and interstitial lung disease associated with rheumatoid arthritis. Interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features is a poorly understood condition with an unclear cause, pathogenesis, and prognosis that make management decisions challenging. Rheumatoid arthritis with interstitial lung disease consists of variable clinical types, some of which present with progressive phenotypes and high mortality. Dr. Joerns strives to understand what factors determine lung condition progression and response to therapy in interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features and rheumatoid arthritis with interstitial lung disease. Her ultimate goals are to determine the best management approach and develop targeted therapies to treat these conditions.

Dr. Jon T. Giles, MD, MPH
Jon T Giles, MD, MPH is an associate professor of medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the director of Cedars-Sinai Inflammatory Arthritis Center in Los Angeles. His research interests are centered primarily within the inflammatory arthritides. His current and past research involves the investigation of accelerated atherosclerosis and myocardial dysfunction in rheumatoid arthritis, the determinants of rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease, and understanding how inflammation affects adipose tissue and muscle in people with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, and their subsequent effects on health outcomes. He is the recipient of grant support from several organizations including the National Institutes of Health and the Arthritis Foundation.

Dr. Alicia Hinze, M.D., M.H.S
Alicia Hinze, M.D., M.H.S., is a rheumatologist with a specialty interest in scleroderma and myositis. Her clinical focus includes the diagnosis and management of Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma), both diffuse and limited subtypes, and its multisystem complications; Inflammatory myopathies (dermatomyositis, anti-synthetase syndrome, myositis overlapping with other autoimmune diseases, HMGCR necrotizing myopathy); Interstitial lung disease associated with systemic autoimmune conditions; Raynaud's phenomenon; and Systemic lupus erythematosus She has a clinical passion to educate patients about their disease and available options for management, and to work with them to develop a personalized treatment plan.In addition to her clinical activities, she is active in clinical research. She is developing the Mayo Clinic Scleroderma Registry to collect clinical information from patients who chose to participate, to help physicians and researchers better understand the disease process, best monitoring strategies and optimal treatment approaches. Her research focus is on developing methods to improve monitoring of disease activity and response to therapy in order to provide the best care possible to her patients.

Dr. Bryant England, MD, PhD
Dr. England is a clinician-investigator focused on improving long-term outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis. He conducts clinical and epidemiologic research in RA-associated lung disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and multimorbidity using several large observational datasets. He also leads prospective studies in RA-associated lung disease and connective tissue disease-interstitial lung disease. Clinically, Dr. England is a rheumatologist focused on the care of patients with inflammatory arthritis (including RA and gout) and incorporates the use of musculoskeletal ultrasound into the diagnosis and management of rheumatic diseases. He also directs the University of Nebraska Medical Center Autoimmune Lung Disease Clinic, a multi-specialty clinic that specializes in treating autoimmune lung diseases (e.g. RA-interstitial lung disease and other connective tissue disease-interstitial lung disease). Dr. England is actively involved in several American College of Rheumatology projects and committees. He teaches medical students, residents, and fellows in the areas of rheumatology, musculoskeletal ultrasound, and clinical research as well as serves as a research mentor to students, residents, and fellows.

Dr. Elizabeth Volkmann, MD, MS
Dr. Elizabeth Volkmann is the Director of the UCLA Scleroderma Program and the founder and Co-Director of the UCLA Connective Tissue Disease-Related Interstitial Lung Disease (CTD-ILD) Program. She is an internationally recognized expert in systemic sclerosis and connective tissue disease-related interstitial lung disease. Board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, Dr. Volkmann graduated from Pomona College where she majored in Neuroscience and minored in Dance. She received her medical degree from UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, and subsequently completed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Rheumatology at UCLA. During her fellowship, she participated in the Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) Program and earned her Master of Science degree in Clinical Research. Dr. Volkmann cares deeply about the welfare of her patients and seeks to empower them on their healing journey with traditional, as well as holistic treatment approaches. She works closely with other specialists to develop comprehensive and personalized care plans that are unique for each patient. Dr. Volkmann is also an active clinical and translational researcher in systemic sclerosis and interstitial lung disease. Her research focuses on discovering novel biomarkers that can be used to predict whether someone will improve on a specific therapy. She led the first study to investigate the gut microbiome in patients with systemic sclerosis and now leads an international consortium of investigators dedicated to understanding how the gut microbiome contributes to inflammation and clinical symptoms in patients with systemic sclerosis. She also participates in clinical trials to help identify new therapies for patients with autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Sindhu R. Johnson
Dr. Sindhu Johnson is a Rheumatologist, Clinical Epidemiologist and Clinician-Scientist at the University Health Network and Sinai Health Systems. She is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto; and Program Director of the Clinical Epidemiology & Health Care Research Program at IHPME. Her program of research develops methodologic platforms that combine data-driven and expert-based methods with advanced analytic techniques to define disease states, develop outcome measures, develop guidelines, and study treatment effects. This methodologic work was developed using the model of scleroderma and has now expanded across rheumatic diseases. She has published >250 articles in peer reviewed journals, secured $8 million dollars in salary support and operating grant funding, published 5 book chapters, and invited to 4 Editorial Boards. She has been an investigator for trials that led to the first two US Food and Drug Administration approved medications for scleroderma associated interstitial lung disease (nintedinib (NEJM 2019), tocilizumab (Arthritis Rheum 2020)). She has supervised 20 international clinical research fellows and graduate students, most of who have established Scleroderma Programs in their home countries or now have academic appointments.