ACR Journals on Air Podcast
Welcome to ACR Journals on Air, the ACR’s newest podcast series featuring interviews, commentary, and analysis on research from our three peer-reviewed journals: Arthritis & Rheumatology, Arthritis Care & Research, and ACR Open Rheumatology. Join us each episode for engaging discussions with authors and independent experts about recently published studies, their implications for clinical care, and how they move the field of rheumatology forward.
Whether it’s an expert analysis of a manuscript or deep dive with an author—our goal is the same—to understand the impact of the science and bring it from the bench to the bedside.
Podcast Host
Victoria Shanmugam, MBBS, MRCP, CCD, has clinical expertise caring for patients with autoimmune diseases, vasculitis, and chronic wounds. She has led several research studies investigating scleroderma, hidradenitis suppurativa, and the interplay of the host immune response and the microbiome in chronic wounds. Dr. Shanmugam is a frequently invited speaker at professional meetings. Her work in wound healing, hidradenitis, and scleroderma has been published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals, such as Arthritis Care and Research, Current Opinion in Rheumatology, International Wound Journal, and Clinical Rheumatology. Connect with Dr. Shanmugam on Twitter (@VickiShanmugam).
Episodes
New episodes will be available twice a month on Tuesdays.
Episode 52 – Pain in Psoriatic Arthritis
Episode 51 – Self-Driving Research
Episode 50 – More Than the Sum of its Parts
Episode 49 – When Can We Wean Remission Maintenance Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis?
Episode 48 – Calprotectin in Antiphospholipid Syndrome
Browse previous episodes in the ACR Journals on Air archive.
Episode Show Notes
In this episode we explore a groundbreaking study on the prevalence of fibromyalgia and widespread pain in patients with psoriatic arthritis with first author and ACR Master, Philip J. Mease, MD. In his latest article, Prevalence of Fibromyalgia and Widespread Pain in Psoriatic Arthritis: Association with Disease Severity Assessment in a Large US RegistryUID, Dr. Mease explains what the presence of these conditions reveals about disease severity and how they converge.
Philip J. Mease, MD – Philip J. Mease, MD, is Director of Rheumatology Research at Providence Swedish Health and Clinical Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, WA, USA. His clinical practice is based at Seattle Rheumatology Associates, a Providence affiliate.
Dr. Mease conducts disease state research in registries such as the CorEvitas (formerly Corrona) US disease registry, for which he is Director of the PsA–SpA arm. He also serves as a key consultant to a Providence affiliate, Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), conducting artificial intelligence (AI) research studies in system-wide (Providence) autoimmune disease populations. He conducts translational research through ISB and the GRAPPA Collaborative Research Network.
He is a reviewer for multiple journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Arthritis & Rheumatology, Arthritis Care & Research, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, The Journal of Rheumatology, and Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism. In 2019 the National Psoriasis Foundation awarded him a lifetime achievement award for his work in advancing the field of psoriatic arthritis.
Dr. Mease is Past President and Founding Organizer of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) and is current treasurer and Education committee chair of this > 1000 international rheumatology and dermatology society.
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As the dawn of the AI revolution marches on, scientific research and clinical medicine are adopting new and more streamlined ways to investigate and serve our patients. Today, we look at how AI-driven, large language models (LLMs) might aid our field’s researchers in analyzing data from patient interviews. Bella Mehta, MBBS, MS, MD, corresponding author of A Novel Approach for Mixed-Methods Research Using Large Language Models: A Report Using Patients’ Perspectives on Barriers to Arthroplasty, joins us this week to give us her insights on this quickly evolving technology and how it can be employed in both the research and clinical setting.
Bella Mehta, MBBS, MS, MD – Bella Mehta, MBBS, MS, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at Hospital for Special Surgery and Weill Cornell Medicine. She is originally from Mumbai, India, where she graduated from medical school. She completed her Internal Medicine Training at New York Medical College, followed by a rheumatology fellowship at Hospital for Special Surgery where she stayed on as a faculty. She has also completed a Master’s in Patient Oriented Research at Mailman School of Public health at Columbia University and has advanced skills in clinical research methods. She specializes in the care of patients with various rheumatic conditions and has a particular clinical interest in adult-onset Still's disease. She has an expertise in health service research with a focus on decreasing health care disparities in patients with rheumatic diseases and improving outcomes in patients with osteoarthritis. Dr. Mehta leads studies to identify and build creative approaches using artificial intelligence, and advanced technologies such as large language models to improve diagnoses and patient outcomes.
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Genetic conditions, inherited personality traits, brain chemistry...these are but a few of the well-known biological determinants of health and are but a small sample of factors that can determine how severe disease may affect a patient. But what role can social factors play in determining a patient’s health? What of the ‘Social Determinants of Health (SDoH)’? Shivani Garg, MD, set out to identify these factors and understand how they play a role in determining the severity of symptoms in those with lupus nephritis (LN). What she discovered was that not only do these factors play a significant role, but each one added has a multiplicative effect on the patient’s reported outcome! Dr. Garg is our guest today and our discussion will focus on her study, published in Arthritis Care & Rheumatology, Multiplicative Impact of Adverse Social Determinants of Health on Outcomes in Lupus Nephritis: A Meta-analysis and Systematic Review.
Shivani Garg, MD – Shivani Garg, MD, is a faculty member in the Division of Rheumatology within the Department of Medicine. Dr. Garg is medical director of the UW Health Lupus clinic, established in 2018, as the only clinic in the state focused on lupus. Together with her collaborator Sung Sam Lim, MD, MPH (Emory University), Dr. Garg has been collaborating on lupus cardiovascular disease research. Her clinical research focuses on investigating the burden of renal atherosclerosis in lupus nephritis patients, and medication adherence projects in lupus patients.
As a clinical rheumatologist, she was recognized for multiple academic awards in medical school including a scholarship and eight awards in honor of achieving the highest rank in medical school. During her fellowship training, she was selected for a best speaker award at a scientific meeting of the Georgia Society of Rheumatology. Her interests include the clinical epidemiology of lupus, rheumatological diseases, and quality improvement projects in rheumatology.
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The process of weaning our patients off biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (b-DMARD) therapy is not unfamiliar in our clinics. However, when attending to our patients, many complications and questions arise. Specific guidance is needed, but where do we turn? Our guest, Paul Emery, CBE, FLSW, MD, FRCP, FRCPE, FMedSci, MACR, may have some answers. His latest study, Predicting Flare in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis in Biologic Induced Remission, on Tapering, and on Stable Therapy, attempted to “identify predictors of flare in patients in stable b-DMARD–induced clinical remission”. Let’s dive in together and see what he and his team have found.
Paul Emery, CBE, FLSW, MD, FRCP, FRCPE, FMedSci, MACR – Paul Emery, CBE, FLSW, MD, FRCP, FRCPE, FMedSci, MACR, trained at Cambridge, Guy’s and Brompton. Professor Emery is the Head of Rheumatology at Walter & Eliza Hall Institute and Consultant at the Royal Melbourne Hospital 1985, and a University of Birmingham Senior Lecturer 1987. Since 1995, he has been Versus Arthritis UK (formerly ARC) Professor of Rheumatology in Leeds, and Director of the Leeds NIHR Biomedical Research Centre 2009–2022.
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To better understand the mechanisms that drive antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), Yu Zuo, MD, MSCS, and his team, evaluated the presence of circulating calprotectin (cCLP) to detect any clinical associations or even the mechanistic role among a cohort of primary APS and aPL-positive patients. Dr. Zuo sits down with us to discuss whether calprotectin can be a functional biomarker for those with APS thrombocytopenia and what the future holds for this study’s conclusions.
Yu Zuo, MD, MSCS – Yu (Ray) Zuo, MD, MSCS, is the Edward T. and Ellen K. Dryer Early Career Professor of Rheumatology and Assistant Professor in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Michigan. His research centers on the pathogenic role of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) and related autoimmune responses in thromboinflammatory conditions like antiphospholipid syndrome, vasculitis, and COVID-19. He has authored some 50 papers, and his research has been featured in top-tier journals like <,em>Blood, Science Translational Medicine, and Arthritis & Rheumatology. He receives research support from the NIAMS, ANRF, RRF, the Frankel Cardiovascular Center at the University of Michigan, and the Taubman Research Institute. Recognized for his scientific contributions, Dr. Zuo has recently received the 2024 Young Physician Scientist Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He is the associate director of the Michigan APS Program.
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