ACR on Air Podcast

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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

Jonathan Hausmann, MD

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 72 – State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium (SOTA) Preview

Episode 71 – The Rheumatology Access Expansion Initiative

Episode 70 – Partnering with Your Occupational Therapist

Episode 69 – Placebos: Their Effects and Why They Work

Episode 68 – IgG4

Episode 67 – The Clinical Year in Preview

Browse previous episodes in the ACR on Air archive.

Episode Show Notes

April is just around the corner, and so is the State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium (SOTA) 2024! This week, we welcome Sobia Hassan, MD, MRCP, RhMSUS, Chair of the SOTA Planning Group and Ibtissam Gad, MD, Chair of the Fellows in Training subcommittee. We discuss the topics and speakers chosen for SOTA and how they were selected, some highlights including discussions on CAR T cells, CPPD, and Check Point Inhibitors, what’s in store for our fellows in training and how our listeners can get involved.
See more information and register for SOTA

 

Sobia Hassan, MD, MRCP, RhMSUS

Sobia Hassan, MD, MRCP, RhMSUS – Sobia Hassan MD, MRCP, RhMSUS, is an associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at RUSH University Medical College, Chicago. Hassan is a graduate of the University of Nottingham (UK) and has completed residencies in both the UK and at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in NY. She completed her rheumatology fellowship at Case Western Reserve University, MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland. She has been an academic rheumatologist at RUSH University since 2016 and has a special interest in musculoskeletal ultrasonography.

Hassan has served on several American College of Rheumatology committees including the Committee on Education and the CME Oversight Subcommittee. She is currently the chair of the State-of-the-Art Meeting Planning Group.

 

Ibtissam Gad, MD

Ibtissam Gad, MD – Ibtissam Gad, MD, prioritizes exceptional patient care and is dedicated to medical education. She completed the Baccalaureate/MD Accelerated Program at the University of Toledo and the University of Toledo College of Medicine. Her internal medicine training, including the Leadership in Medical Education Track, was at University Hospitals/Case Western. As a Clinical Assistant Professor at Case Western Medical School, Dr. Gad actively employed innovative and active learning techniques in medical school education.

She pursued a fellowship in adult rheumatology at Henry Ford Health in Detroit, where she focused on creating a comprehensive rheumatology curriculum for internal medicine residents. She is actively involved in the American College of Rheumatology and has served in various capacities within the organization and is currently Chair of the Fellows in Training (FIT) Subcommittee.

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Join us this week for an insightful and encouraging discussion with Jennifer Mandal, MD, and Wendy Grant, MD, founders of The Rheumatology Access Expansion Initiative (RAE). RAE is a project designed to support the Navajo Nation, an underserved community with respect to rheumatic disease. Our guests explain how leveraging the established educational model, Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO), was used to remotely train PCPs among the Navajo in the diagnosis and evidence-based treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

 

Jennifer Mandal, MD

Jennifer Mandal, MD – Jennifer Mandal, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of California San Francisco. In her clinical work, she serves a diverse population of vulnerable rheumatology patients at San Francisco’s safety net hospital, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Her scholarship focuses on medical education, health equity, and improving access to rheumatology care. She is the Director of the Rheumatology Access Expansion (RAE) Initiative, a program dedicated to supporting people living with rheumatic diseases in communities with little access to rheumatology providers, through novel education programs for primary care providers and community health representatives. She is also the UCSF School of Medicine Lead for Interprofessional Education, the Director of Evaluation for the UCSF Rheumatology Fellowship Program, and the recipient of the Ira M. Goldstein Award for Outstanding Teaching in Rheumatology.

 

Gwendolyn Grant, MD

Gwendolyn Grant, MD – Wendy Grant, MD, is a practicing rheumatologist in southwest Colorado. Her rural, hospital-based practice has grown to include two rheumatologists and a rheumatology PA who collectively provide rheumatology care to a large area of southwest Colorado, northwest New Mexico, and southeast Utah. She also provides rheumatology consultations to patients on the Navajo reservation in Red Mesa, AZ, and on the Ute Mountains Ute reservation in Towaoc, CO. She has been committed to expanding access to quality RA care for the Navajo community and other tribal and rural communities of the southwest since 2005.

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Kicking off a new series in conjunction with the Association of Rheumatology Professionals (ARP), we’re spending time with professionals in the field of rheumatology that can, and do, much for our patients. The focus of this episode centers on the occupational therapist (OT).

But how much do we know of our colleagues and their contributions toward our patients? What exactly does an occupational therapist do, with our referrals in hand? We caught up with the founder of Arthritis Life and host of the Arthritis Life podcast, Cheryl Crow, OT, to answer these questions and more. Cheryl explains to us what happens at an OT visit, what sorts of patients should see an OT, how to manage pain from exercise, as well as sharing her favorite life hacks and her personal journey from patient to advocate.

Cheryl Crow, OT

Cheryl Crow, OT – Cheryl Crow, OT, is a fierce advocate for meeting the full picture of patients’ needs beyond joint pain. After living with rheumatoid arthritis for over a decade and becoming an occupational therapist, Cheryl founded the podcast Arthritis Life with the mission of educating, empowering, and supporting people with arthritis.

Cheryl is known for her entertaining yet educational videos featuring arthritis life hacks, product demonstrations, and insights into the psychosocial aspects of life with invisible chronic illness. She created and hosts the Arthritis Life podcast and runs the online self-management course and support group Rheum to THRIVE, where she helps people adjust to their conditions and live full and meaningful lives.

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If there was ever any evidence for the depth of complexity within our own brains, look no further than the placebos and their effects. Both a help and hinderance to the medical community, rheumatology clinicians and researchers can agree that when testing new treatments, the placebo effect is as powerful as it is disruptive. But what is it exactly? How does it work and for which symptoms? Are there symptoms to which this effect is ineffective? How can you diminish the effect? What is the “Nocebo Effect” and what ethics are involved when dealing with placebos? To answer these questions, we’ve invited Professor Ted Kaptchuk, director of the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, to be our guest today and tell us all about placebos, their effects and why they work.

Professor Ted J. Kaptchuk

Professor Ted J. Kaptchuk – Professor Ted J. Kaptchuk is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also a professor of Global Health and Social Medicine.

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Join us this week for an in-depth discussion on IgG4-related disease with one of the premiere researchers in the field, John Stone, MD, MPH. In this episode, Dr. Stone reviews the disease clinical presentation of IgG4, as well as its symptoms, how to make the diagnosis, treatment options, the role of IgG4, and what happens inside the body. We also discuss Dr. Stone’s research and his personal journey in the field.

John Stone, MD, MPH

John Stone, MD, MPH – John Stone, MD, MPH, is the co-founder of the Vasculitis Center at Johns Hopkins University and has directed a multi-center, randomized clinical trial in granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). The results of this trial were published in The New England Journal of Medicine (2005). He is currently the Co-PI of a second multi-center clinical trial in ANCA-associated vasculitis: Rituximab in ANCA-Associated Vasculitis HRAVe. The primary results of this trial had been published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2010.

Dr. Stone’s most current research interest pertains to an emerging disease known as IgG4-related systemic disease (IgG4-RSD). His research group at the MGH made the seminal observation that rituximab therapy leads to the targeted reduction of the IgG4 subclass of immunoglobulins in this disorder.

Dr. Stone gave the Sir James Cameron Lecture at the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh) in 2003 and delivered the Dunlop-Dottridge Lecture at the Canadian Rheumatology Association in 2007, as well as the Woodbury Lecture at Dalhousie University in 2010.

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As the year winds down and a new year begins, looking back sometimes forces us to look ahead. ACR Convergence 2023 offered an opportunity to do just that! In this episode, we have invited the two speakers from the Clinical Year in Preview session, Joan Bathon, MD, and Jill Buyon, MD. They join us to discuss the abstracts that are expected to make the biggest waves in the coming year, as they relate to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We discuss a variety of abstracts that include the use of artificial intelligence (AI), steroid use, hydroxychloroquine dosing, preventing the development of RA in lupus, pregnancy in lupus dosing for methotrexate, and much more.

Joan Bathon, MD

Joan Bathon, MD – Joan Bathon, MD, is a rheumatologist, Professor of Medicine, and Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Bathon’s career has focused on understanding the pathogenesis and functional consequences of inflammation in RA. Her group is particularly interested in understanding the effects of chronic rheumatoid inflammation on the clinical phenotype of RA, as manifested by accelerated atherosclerosis, myocardial dysfunction, and adverse body composition. Current work focuses on defining prevalence and risk factors associated with altered left ventricular structure and function in RA, using state-of-the-art cardiac PET/CT scanning. Additional work focuses on defining genetic, protein and cellular biomarkers to identify RA patients at highest risk for cardiovascular disease. Her work has consistently been funded by NIH-NIAMS, the Rheumatology Research Foundation, and other Foundations. Dr. Bathon has also been the PI or co-investigator on many RA and OA clinical trials, both industry and NIH sponsored. She has authored over 200 scientific publications and book chapters. She is a member of the NIH-NIAMS Advisory Council, and past standing member of the NIH ACTS and NIH-NIAMS AMSCT study sections. She was Editor-in-Chief of Arthritis & Rheumatology from 2010–15. She is a past member of the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee.

Jill Buyon, MD

Jill Buyon, MD – Sir Deryck and Lady Va Maughan Professor of Rheumatology and Director of the Division of Rheumatology at New York University School of Medicine; Director of the NYU Lupus Center, Jill Buyon, MD, is internationally recognized as a physician scientist specializing in translational research and management of systemic lupus erythematosus, lupus nephritis, neonatal lupus, and rheumatic diseases in pregnancy. Dr. Buyon founded the HJD Lupus Clinic and has served as its director to this day. She led the first multicenter study in SLE, supported by NIAMS, which resulted in a paradigm change regarding the safety of contraceptive estrogens and hormone replacement. In 1994, Dr. Buyon received NIAMS funding to found the Research Registry for Neonatal Lupus, a major font of information on this disease (>100 publications). Dr. Buyon has been an active member of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership as she continues to lead the effort in deconstructing and reconstructing lupus nephritis. She oversees the P50 COMPEL (Translational Center of Molecular Profiling in Preclinical and Established Lupus) which leverages anti-Ro positive mothers to address disease progression. Her dedication to mentorship is exemplified by the recent renewal of a T32 training grant in rheumatology. Dr. Buyon has published more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed science journals and is co-editor in chief of Lupus Science and Medicine. She has received the Distinguished Clinical Investigator Award as well as the Evelyn V. Hess Lifetime Achievement Award for Research in Lupus and the Halsted R. Holman Award for Excellence in Clinical Research and was elected to the American Academy of Physicians. In 2018, she was appointed as a member of the NIAMS Advisory Council. In keeping with the importance of strong translational bench to bedside leadership, Dr. Buyon approaches the study of SLE with continuous NIH funding, expertise in clinical trials and repositories, paradigm changes in managing the reproductive health of SLE women, and proven excellence in mentorship.

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