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 Convergence 2024 – Updated ACR Lupus Nephritis Guideline
ACR Convergence 2024 – Sponsoring Women in Science
ACR Convergence 2024 – Emerging Threats in Rheumatology
ACR Convergence 2024 – New Mechanisms in Autoinflammatory Diseases
ACR Convergence 2024 – Harnessing the Power of AI
Browse previous episodes in the ACR on Air archive.
Episode Show Notes
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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Get ready for an electrifying episode of ACR on Air, straight from ACR Convergence 2024! We’re diving deep into the cutting-edge world of autoinflammatory diseases with renowned experts Grant Schulert, MD, PhD, and Arthur Kaser, FRCP, FMEDsci. Join us as they unravel the complexities of refractory and complicated systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SJIA). Discover the revolutionary insights into SJIA at the single-cell level, explore the fascinating transcriptional diversity of normal and low-density granulocytes, and learn how groundbreaking approaches like UDON and SATAY-UDON are paving the way for novel disease programs. Don’t miss this chance to fuel your passion for innovation in medicine—tune in and ignite your curiosity!
Grant Schulert, MD, PhD – Grant Schulert, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Rheumatology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) and the Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He received his MD and PhD from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, with his doctoral research completed in the laboratory of Professor Lee-Ann Allen in the Iowa Inflammation Program. Dr. Schulert’s research focuses on the pathogenesis of severe inflammatory diseases of childhood, in particular systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SJIA), macrophage activation syndrome, and SJIA-associated lung disease.
He is the past chair of the Early Career Investigators Subcommittee of the American College of Rheumatology. His clinical interests include undiagnosed and refractory autoinflammatory disorders, and he serves as co-director of the Autoinflammatory Diseases Treatment and Research Center at CCHMC.
Arthur Kaser, FRCP, FMEDsci – Arthur Kaser, FRCP, FMEDsci, completed medical school, internal medicine and gastroenterology training at Leopold Franzens University Innsbruck. He was a Max Kade and Erwin Schroedinger Fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Since 2011 he has been University Chair of Gastroenterology at the University of Cambridge. His laboratory has discovered important mechanisms of autoimmunity and IBD, including biochemical routes that challenged fundamental principles of purine and energy metabolism across biological kingdoms. In 2017, he was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, one of the UK’s four national academies.
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Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) ever replace the clinician or the researcher? Today, we explore the promises and pitfalls of this transformative technology and its implications for rheumatology. From assistance in diagnosis and patient care to its role in research and academic writing, our guests Amanda Nelson, MD, MS, RhMSUS, and Bella Mehta, MD, MS, MBBS, will walk us through how our field is utilizing AI today and where it may lead in the near future. Most of all, they’ll explain how we can harness its power...without getting burned.
Amanda Nelson, MD, MS, RhMSUS – Amanda Nelson, MD, MS, RhMSUS, is a rheumatologist and epidemiologist with a research interest in osteoarthritis (OA). She has focused primarily on joint shape, radiographic and ultrasound features of OA, racial differences, and machine learning and other novel methodologies for complex datasets.
Bella Mehta, MD, MS, MBBS – Bella Mehta, MD, MS, MBBS, is a dedicated academic rheumatologist specializing in the care of patients with a wide range of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, osteoarthritis, and has a particular interest in adult-onset Still's disease.
Dr. Mehta is at the forefront of integrating Big Data and artificial intelligence into rheumatology to enhance diagnostic accuracy and patient outcomes. Recently, she has explored the potential of large language models (LLMs) in research workflows, clinical practice, investigating how these tools can improve patient care and alleviate physician burnout. Her innovative approach aims to transform the future of rheumatologic care by leveraging AI to advance both healthcare delivery and physician well-being.
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