ACR on Air Podcast
ACR on Air seeks to have informative conversations rheumatology professionals want to hear – ranging in topic from trends in clinical practice, to issues affecting rheumatology professionals, and the changing landscape of the rheumatology field. Tune in bi-weekly for new interviews and commentary that are sure to empower listeners to excel in their specialty.
Podcast Host
Our host, Jonathan Hausmann, MD, is a pediatric and adult rheumatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital. He is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His research interests include autoinflammatory diseases, health technology, and medical education. Connect with Dr. Hausmann on Twitter (@hausmannMD).
Episodes
New episodes will be available twice a month on Tuesdays.
ACR on Air Update
ACR on Air will be taking a break due to the holidays. Our next episode is scheduled to release January 14. Until then, please enjoy all our ACR Convergence 2024 coverage.
Episode 91 – Deficiency of Adenosine Deaminase 2 (DADA2)
Episode 90 – Campaigning for Rheumatology in An Election Year Legislative & Policy Update
ACR Convergence 2024 – Updated ACR Lupus Nephritis Guideline
ACR Convergence 2024 – Sponsoring Women in Science
ACR Convergence 2024 – Emerging Threats in Rheumatology
Browse previous episodes in the ACR on Air archive.
Episode Show Notes
Pui Y. Lee, MD, PhD, a pediatric rheumatologist, leading researcher and clinician, joins us today to lend his insights on deficiency of adenosine deaminase 2 (DADA2). What is this disease and how common is it? What is the underlying pathophysiology, the role of genetic screening and the most useful diagnostic tools? We’ll also cover treatment options for DADA2, the prognosis most patients face, plus the future of research for this condition.
Pui Y. Lee, MD, PhD – Pui Y. Lee, MD, PhD, is a physician scientist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He received his MD and PhD degrees at the University of Florida College of Medicine. He completed residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric rheumatology at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is currently an attending pediatric rheumatologist at Boston Children’s and has clinic once a month at UMass Memorial Medical Center. Dr. Lee’s lab works on the biology of systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis and autoinflammatory diseases in children.
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As 2024 ends, the ACR’s Government Affairs Committee looks ahead to the 119th Congress to address key issues in rheumatology. For our second annual legislative and policy update, we’re joined by Lennie McDaniel, JD, head of ACR’s Washington, D.C. office, and Christina Downey, MD, RhMSUS, FACR, and Chair of the Government Affairs Committee, to share insights from their ACR Convergence 2024 session. Topics include Medicare cuts, physician payments, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), telemedicine reimbursement changes, and how you can advocate for better outcomes with the ACR.
Lennie McDaniel, JD – Lennie Shewmaker McDaniel, JD, is the head of the ACR's Washington, D.C. office and Director, Congressional Affairs. Her political and public policy experience includes roles as legislative staff managing healthcare for a member of the House majority leadership, representing a portfolio of healthcare organization clients for a private government relations firm, managing a PAC representing over 60 members of Congress, and serving on the finance and policy teams of multiple political campaigns. She is a member of the State Bar of Georgia and holds a degree in Political Science and Writing from Birmingham-Southern College and a Jurist Doctorate from the University of Georgia School of Law.
Christina Downey, MD, RhMSUS, FACR – Christina Downey, MD, RhMSUS, FACR, is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Rheumatology and Division Director at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Dr. Downey is also the Chair of the ACR’s Government Affairs Committee and the ACR’s Young Physician Representative to the AMA.
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We are proud to present the highly anticipated ACR 2024 Lupus Nephritis Guideline with first author and frequent guest, Lisa R. Sammaritano, MD. A decade in the making, we reflect on the significant advancements in available therapies, the guideline’s holistic approach to managing lupus nephritis across all age groups, and include insights on combination therapies, minimizing glucocorticoid use and how to manage the full spectrum of patients with lupus nephritis.
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Lisa R. Sammaritano, MD – Lisa R. Sammaritano, MD, is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, and an Attending Physician in the Hospital for Special Surgery Division of Rheumatology.
Dr. Sammaritano attended the University of Pennsylvania for her undergraduate studies, and completed medical school, internal medicine residency and rheumatology fellowship at Weill Cornell Medicine.
She has a large clinical practice focusing on SLE and APS patients; a special area of interest is pregnancy and reproductive health in rheumatic disease patients.
She has been an investigator in a number of clinical trials including the SELENA studies, prospective randomized double-blind studies of the safety of estrogen in SLE patients, and the PROMISSE study, a nationwide observational study of pregnancy risk in patients with SLE and aPL. She has written numerous review articles and chapters, edited a textbook on contraception and pregnancy in patients with rheumatic disease (2014), and lectures nationally and internationally.
She led the 2020 American College of Rheumatology Guideline for the Management of Reproductive Health in Women with Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases and is currently leading the ACR's two upcoming lupus treatment guidelines, the first on lupus nephritis and the second on general systemic lupus erythematosus.
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As our weekend here in Washington D.C. comes to a close, we turn our spotlight to an important and timely conversation from the session, Sponsoring Women in Science. In this episode, we sit down with Elizabeth Volkmann, MD, MS, and Carol Feghali-Bostwick, PhD, to explore the challenges women face in advancing their careers in the sciences. Our guests share insights on how to address the barriers that often impede career development for women, discuss strategies for fostering support and mentorship, and highlight the importance of growing awareness around these critical issues.
Elizabeth Volkmann, MD, MS – Elizabeth Volkmann, MD, MS, is an Associate Professor in the Division of Rheumatology at University of California, Los Angeles, where she serves as 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. Her research focuses on the discovery of novel biomarkers that predict response to ILD-targeted therapies. She also has an enduring interest in exploring how the gut microbiome contributes to the pathogenesis of ILD and systemic sclerosis. Dr. Volkmann is the proud founder of Women in Scleroderma (WINS), a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the careers of women scientists and clinicians working in this field.
Carol Feghali-Bostwick, PhD – Carol Feghali-Bostwick, PhD, is the SmartState and Kitty Trask Holt Endowed Chair for Scleroderma Research and Distinguished University Professor of Medicine. Dr. Feghali-Bostwick earned her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, and completed post-doctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh in PA. Dr. Feghali-Bostwick leads a team of clinical and basic scientists focusing on the pathogenic mechanisms underlying fibrosis whose goal is to identify novel targets for therapy and develop new anti-fibrotic strategies for scleroderma/systemic sclerosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and other fibrosing conditions. Dr. Feghali-Bostwick also contributes to the mentoring of junior investigators.
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As we continue to highlight sessions from ACR Convergence 2024, we came upon this talk we think you should not miss: Emerging Threats in Rheumatology: Chronic Chikungunya Arthritis and Syphilis Mimicking Rheumatic Diseases. Session presenters, Jose Kennedy Amaral Pereira, MD, and Daniela DiMarco, MD, MPH, help us explore the world of emerging threats in rheumatology: specifically, chikungunya arthritis and syphilis. These two experts share insights to help diagnose and manage those with these devastating infections and highlight for us how important it is for rheumatologists to remain on high alert for these infections, which can be easily mistaken for more common rheumatic disorders.
Jose Kennedy Amaral Pereira, MD – Jose Kennedy Amaral Pereira, MD, is a rheumatologist and researcher interested in the chronic chikungunya arthritis (CCA) treatment and how the infection by chikungunya virus can cause chronic rheumatic disease like rheumatoid arthritis, and others.
His research is based on the concept that CCA may be harmful enough that it needs treatment with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), such as methotrexate.
Daniela DiMarco, MD, MPH – Daniela DiMarco, MD, MPH, is an infectious disease physician and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center providing clinical care within the URMC system and the Monroe County Sexual Health Clinic.
She obtained her Medical Degree from SUNY Stony Brook, internal medicine residency training at the University of Connecticut, ID fellowship at the University of Vermont, and master’s in public health from Dartmouth College.
Dr. DiMarco’s work is focused on STIs including HIV. She leads the CDC-funded Northeast Track 2B Capacity Building Assistance Program for HIV Prevention at the University of Rochester Center for Community Practice where she is Associate Medical Director and co-leads the NYS AIDS Institute Clinical Education Initiative Sexual Health Center of Excellence. She participates in clinical research as part of the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium and serves on STI-specific regional and national expert working groups.
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