Women in Rheumatology: Gender Issues in Disease and Management Save
RheumNow's Women in Rheumatology Campaign with enhanced coverage of Women in Rheumatology is sponsored by Bristol Myers Squibb Network of Women. All content is chosen by RheumNow and its faculty.
Speaker Bios in order of appearance:
Dr. Alexis Ogdie: Dr Ogdie is Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, and Deputy Director of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA and is Director of the Penn Psoriatic Arthritis and Spondyloarthritis Program. Dr Ogdie’s research program focuses on pharmacoepidemiology and observational studies of psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The mission of her research is to improve outcomes in PsA by accelerating diagnosis, increasing the focus on meaningful, patient-centered outcomes, and in developing and advancing methods for precision medicine. Her areas of expertise include epidemiology and pharmacoepidemiology, biostatistical methods for observational studies (e.g. time to event modeling, prediction modeling), outcome measures (e.g. qualitative and quantitative/psychometric assessment), clinical trial design and more general qualitative methods (e.g. survey, focus group and interview studies).
Dr Ogdie’s recent work has focused on pragmatic trial design in PsA, which is the basis for an R01 funded by NIAMS (R01 AR072363), and trial simulation studies to inform pragmatic trial design, with statistical collaborator Alisa Stephens. Dr Ogdie is currently co-leading a trial to examine the impact of dietary interventions on PsA disease activity and conducted a pilot trial of physical activity in inflammatory arthritis. Both trials employ concepts from behavioral economics to enhance the effectiveness of the interventions. Recently, her research group has focused their efforts on early identification of PsA through a better understanding of the predictors of disease and how this can be implemented in electronic medical records. They are also working on design of a trial to test prevention of PsA through the treatment of psoriasis.
Dr. Megan Clowse: Dr. Megan Clowse is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology and Immunology. Her clinical research focuses on the management of rheumatic diseases in pregnancy. She has cared for over 600 pregnancies in women with rheumatic disease, collecting information on these pregnancies initially in the Duke Autoimmunity in Pregnancy Registry and Repository, and now the MADRA (Maternal Autoimmune Disease Research Alliance) registry and repository. She served on the Core Leadership Team for the inaugural American College of Rheumatology's Reproductive Health Guidelines, published January 2020. Dr. Clowse created www.LupusPregnancy.org, a website dedicated to improving lupus pregnancy planning and management for patients and rheumatologists.
Dr. Clowse was the founding director of the Duke Lupus Clinic, where she continues to see patients each week and mentor junior faculty researchers. The team has developed a new approach to lupus classification and management and is currently collecting and analyzing patient- and physician-reported measures to better clarify this construct.
Dr. Anisha Dua: Anisha B. Dua MD, MPH is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Rheumatology Fellowship Program Director and Director of the Northwestern Vasculitis Center at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Dr. Dua interests are in rheumatology education and vasculitis. She completed her Rheumatology fellowship at Rush University as well as fellowships in Medical Education at The University of Chicago and Integrative Medicine at Northwestern.
Dr. Dua currently leads a multidisciplinary team in the clinical management of vasculitis patients. She assisted in the development of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Guideline for the Treatment and Management of Vasculitis, is on the Board of Directors for the Vasculitis Foundation and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Council for the Rheumatology Research Foundation. She is the chair of the e-learning Subcommittee and co-chair of the Workforce Solutions Committee, Virtual Training Programs for the ACR. She has served in leadership capacities both locally and nationally through the American College of Rheumatology, the Vasculitis Foundation, and the ACGME in the areas of education as well as vasculitis. You can follow her on twitter @anisha_dua.
Jeffrey A. Sparks, MD, MMSc is a rheumatologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. His research focuses on using patient-oriented and epidemiologic methods to evaluate the etiology, outcomes, and public health burden of rheumatic diseases. Dr. Sparks serves as the Director of Immuno-Oncology and Autoimmunity and Associate Program Director for the Rheumatology Fellowship of the Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity.
Nancy E. Lane, MD is an Endowed Professor of Medicine, Rheumatology, and Aging Research, Director for the Center for Musculoskeletal Health, Director of the K12 NIH Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH), and Principal Investigator of the NIH funded Program on Sex Differences in Musculoskeletal Diseases Across the Lifespan at the University of California at Davis School of Medicine where she has served for the past 8 years.
Dr. Lane is an internationally recognized scientist in the fields of both osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Her translational research team has been instrumental in defining the role of glucocorticoids in bone fragility including their effects on cell stress and vulnerable cell populations including osteocytes. As a faculty member at the University of California at San Francisco, she pioneered a seminal clinical trial to demonstrate that daily injections of the hormone PTH could reverse glucocorticoid induced osteoporosis. After transitioning to U.C. Davis, she a developed a novel compound to direct stem cells to the bone to grow new bone and treat osteoporosis. In addition she has uncovered novel genetic variations that predispose individuals to osteoarthritis and has studied novel treatments for osteoarthritis. She organized and directs an NIH funded junior faculty grant writing workshop that has taught over 300 junior faculty in musculoskeletal medicine grant writing skills that has resulted in a 45% success rate in applicants receiving research grants (2006-present).
Dr. Lane has been recognized by the University, her medical residents, subspecialty fellows, and by her faculty peers as an outstanding mentor with the UC Davis Dean's Award for Scientific Mentoring (2008). Her research accomplishments have been recognized by the UC Davis School of Medicine Dean's Team Science Award (2012), the American College of Rheumatology for the Oscar Gluck Memorial Lecture for outstanding work in Osteoporosis (2011), the Remodeling in Bone “RIB Award” by the International Society of Bone and Mineral Research (2012), her election as a Master of the American College of Physicians (2012) and David Trentham Lectureship and Women in Medicine Lectureship at Harvard Medical School (2013).. She is also recipient of the Bone and Joint Decade Outstanding Achievement Award for developing a mentoring program in grant writing (2009).
Dr. Lane was President of the Board of the United States Bone and Joint Decade (2006-2008), co-led the International Bone and Joint Decade Conference in Washington DC (2010),was elected and serves on the council of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (2010-2013), and the Orthopedic Research Society.
Dr. Lane is on the editorial boards of Nature Reviews Rheumatology, Rheumatology (Associate Editor), Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism (Associate Editor), Co-editor Arthritis and Rheumatism (2005-2010), Journal of Rheumatology, She was elected to the Association of American Physicians (2006), has been named Best Doctors in America annually since 2004, and continues to have an active rheumatology practice.
Dr Mease is Director of Rheumatology Research at the Swedish Medical Center and Providence St Joseph Health and Clinical Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA. His clinical practice is based at Seattle Rheumatology Associates. Dr Mease earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at Stanford University, Stanford, CA and completed his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in rheumatology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Dr Mease’s research interests include psoriatic arthritis (PsA), spondyloarthritis (SpA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA), fibromyalgia (FM) and osteoporosis, focusing on disease state, outcome measure development and the efficacy and safety of emerging therapies for these conditions. He has authored over 500 journal articles, book chapters and many hundreds of abstracts, and edited textbooks on PsA and axial SpA. He is a reviewer for multiple journals including New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Arthritis & Rheumatology, Arthritis Care & Research, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, The Journal of Rheumatology and Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism. Dr Mease is a prolific international speaker at academic congresses, educator for rheumatologists and dermatologists, and is considered an international opinion leader on SpA.
Dr Mease is a past president and founding organizer of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) and is a member of the Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society and the Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network. He has also been active in the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) research organization as co-chair of the PsA and chronic pain working groups and as a member of the steering committee.
Dr Blazer is an Assistant Professor of Rheumatology at Hospital for Special Surgery, who studies the biologic and genetic determinants of lupus severity in patients of African ancestry. She has forged multiple international collaborations with rheumatology programs in West Africa, spearheading the development of unique bio registries in Accra, Ghana, and Lagos, Nigeria. Dr. Blazer has received several funded grants through the Rheumatology Research Foundation, International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR), Lupus Research Alliance, and the National Institutes of Health. She was most recently awarded a K23 research development award from NIAID to continue her work on APOL1 regulation and expression in lupus at HSS. Furthermore, Dr. Blazer is committed to mentorship and education and is working to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of Rheumatology in part through her role as the co-chair and inaugural member of the American College of Rheumatology DEI subcommittee. In recognition of her work as a thought leader in reducing health disparities, she was appointed as a 2020 National Minority Quality Forum 40 under 40 leader in Minority Health.
