Current guidelines recommend limiting the use of glucocorticoids by coining the new concept of “bridging therapy”, that is, use GCs when the disease is active and get rid of them as soon as you can. This way of thinking is conceptually attractive, however, the formula for translation to real life settings is not included.
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Guillermo Ruiz-Irastorza received his MD from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain in 1990 and became a specialist in Internal Medicine in 1996. Following his PhD from the University of the Basque Country, Spain in 1999, he spent a year as a Research Fellow at the Lupus Research Unit, St Thomas’ Hospital, UK, before returning to the Hospital Universitario Cruces as Consultant Physician in Internal Medicine. Since 2010 he leads the Autoimmune Diseases Unit.
He became Professor of Medicine at the University of the Basque Country in 2004. He is the coordinator of the Autoimmune, Inflammatory and Infectious Diseases area of BioBizkaia Health Research Institute and also leads the Autoimmune Diseases Research group.
Dr. Ruiz-Irastorza’s clinical and research interests focus on systemic lupus erythematosus, antiphospholipid syndrome (APS),and pregnancy and autoimmune diseases. He is author of 270 peer-reviewed publications. His group has contributed to better define the role of antimalarials and glucocorticoids in the treatment of lupus. He is member of the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Collaborating Clinics (SLICC), APS Action and Auto-Inflammatory Diseases Alliance (AIDA) Network.