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.
Episode 134 – How I Evaluate Raynaud's Disease
Episode 133 – How I Evaluate ILD
Episode 132 – JIA, A Family’s Perspective
Episode 131 – Can We Prevent Rheumatoid Arthritis?
Episode 130 – The 2026 Adult/Juvenile Spondyloarthritis Guidelines
Browse previous episodes in the ACR on Air archive.
Episode Show Notes
When is Raynaud’s phenomenon truly a disease? Robert Spiera, MD, joins us to discuss the key clinical clues, the value of patient photos and nail fold capillary findings, and how to approach a positive ANA without a defined connective tissue disease. We review treatment options from warming strategies and medication review to calcium channel blockers, PDE-5 inhibitors, prostaglandins, and digital sympathectomy and highlight the finding that demands urgent attention: a painful, persistently blanched digit. Most importantly, we discuss the balance between treating serious vascular disease and avoiding unnecessary medicalization of a common phenomenon.
Robert Spiera, MD – Robert Spiera, MD, is the Director of the Scleroderma, Vasculitis, and Myositis Center at Hospital for Special Surgery, and a Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He has been the principal investigator in several clinical trials and observational studies focusing on scleroderma and vasculitis. Dr. Spiera specializes in the treatment of various rheumatologic conditions including scleroderma, vasculitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and Sjögren’s syndrome. He has authored over 200 publications relating to scleroderma, vasculitis, and other rheumatic diseases.
Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!
Robert Hallowell, MD, is a Pulmonary and Critical Care physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is the Director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Program and the Pulmonary Ambulatory Clinic. He received his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed both his Internal Medicine Residency and Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. His research focuses on understanding how autoantibodies and rheumatologic diseases shape clinical phenotypes and outcomes in interstitial lung disease, with the goal of better defining disease natural history and optimizing treatment strategies.
Robert Hallowell, MD – Robert Hallowell, MD, is a Pulmonary and Critical Care physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is the Director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Program and the Pulmonary Ambulatory Clinic. He received his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed both his Internal Medicine Residency and Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. His research focuses on understanding how autoantibodies and rheumatologic diseases shape clinical phenotypes and outcomes in interstitial lung disease, with the goal of better defining disease natural history and optimizing treatment strategies.
Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!
September is Rheumatic Disease Awareness Month (RDAM), and today we’re sharing the story of Deborah Talbot, an occupational therapist (OT) from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and her daughter, Molly, who was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) at the age of 12 years old. When an ankle injury turned out to be far more, Molly endured months of pain, swelling, repeated evaluations and the uncertainty of not understanding why she wasn’t getting better. This is the story of how a family came together to fight through pain, discover a disease, find remission that would remain for years and start advocacy for those without the resources they were blessed with, emerging triumphant in the face of overwhelming adversity.
Deborah Talbot, OT – Deborah Talbot, OT, has been an occupational therapist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for 26 years. She has a long-standing career with specialty areas of pediatric joint and orthopedic conditions, movement disorders, and adapted seating and wheelchairs. Her career began at Shriner’s Hospital for Children in the early nineties, where she had a very concentrated caseload of providing rehabilitation services for children with JIA. She is also the mother of 16-year-old Molly Talbot, who was diagnosed with JIA in 2022.
Related Links:
Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!
Rheumatoid arthritis may begin years before the first swollen joint appears, with autoantibodies circulating long before a clinical diagnosis is made. In this episode, we explore what happens during this critical preclinical phase and whether RA can be prevented before it starts. Kevin D. Deane, MD, PhD, director of the Autoimmune Disease Prevention Center at the University of Colorado Anschutz, joins us to discuss what a positive CCP antibody really means, where RA may originate, lessons from the STOP-RA trial, whether we should screen people at risk, and how clinicians should counsel patients who test positive for CCP antibodies.
Kevin D. Deane, MD, PhD – Kevin D. Deane, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine and Rheumatologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado. He is a prominent specialist and director at the university's Autoimmune Disease Prevention Center, leading groundbreaking research and national trials like StopRA to prevent rheumatoid arthritis.
Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!
The new clinical guidelines for juvenile and adult axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), developed collaboratively by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), the Spondylitis Association of America (SAA), and the Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN), mark an important evolution in the management of this complex disease. In this episode, Liron Caplan, MD, PhD, and Matthew Stoll, MD, PhD, MSCS, discuss what's changed, why it matters, and how these recommendations can guide everyday clinical practice—from the first-ever juvenile axSpA guideline and the unified approach to radiographic and non-radiographic disease, to practical decisions around MRI use, first-line therapies, biologic selection, treatment failure, and physical activity.
Matthew Stoll, MD, PhD, MSCS – Matthew Stoll, MD, PhD, MSCS, is a pediatric rheumatologist who earned his MD and PhD at Upstate Medical University (Syracuse, NY) in 2001, followed by completion of residency in pediatrics at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in 2004 and fellowship in pediatric rheumatology at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2007. He has been at the University of Alabama at Birmingham since 2011. During his fellowship, Dr. Stoll developed an interest in the clinical epidemiology of spondyloarthritis, and he subsequently turned his attention to the links between spondyloarthritis and inflammatory bowel disease as well as the intestinal microbiota in children with spondyloarthritis. Dr. Stoll has been on the Board of Directors of the Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN) since 2019 and was Chair of the BoD from May 2024–2026.
Liron Caplan, MD, PhD – Liron Caplan, MD, PhD, is a rheumatologist, physician-scientist, and Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he also serves as Section Head of Rheumatology at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center. He earned his MD from Baylor College of Medicine, completed his Internal Medicine residency at Emory University and Rheumatology fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis, and later received a PhD in Health Services Research from the University of Colorado.
His research focuses on improving care for patients with axial spondyloarthritis and other inflammatory rheumatic diseases through outcomes research, clinical guidelines, and health services research. Dr. Caplan has authored more than 110 peer-reviewed publications, including numerous first-author papers, has helped develop American College of Rheumatology treatment guidelines, and has received multiple honors for his contributions to research, clinical care, and medical education.
Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!