Rheumatology Resources

Dr. Heather McDonald-Blumer

Dr. Dana Jerome

Dr. Vinod Chandran

Details TBA

Details TBA

Registration
8:30am to 12:30pm EST

Location: 89 Chestnut Street, 2nd Floor - Giovanni Room
Toronto, ON M5G 1R1 

8:00am       Registration & Light Breakfast     
8:30am       Program begins
12:30pm     Program Concludes

Speakers:
Lihi Eder
Maarten Boers
Tim Kwok

Registration
8:30am to 12:00pm EST

Location: 89 Chestnut Street, 2nd Floor - Giovanni Room
Toronto, ON M5G 1R1 

8:00am       Registration & Light Breakfast     
8:30am       Program begins
11:45am     Program Concludes & Lunch will be available 

Speakers:
Heather McDonald-Blumer
Robert Rottapel
Lianne Tile
Sandra Kim

8:00am to 12:00pm EST

Location: 89 Chestnut Street, 2nd Floor - Giovanni Room
Toronto, ON M5G 1R1 

Speakers:
Denis Poddubnyy
Sinead Maguire 
Zoya Qaiyum 
Aki Nakamura
Laura Passalent
Zeynep Baskurt 
Archita Srinath
Fataneh Tavasolian

Event Registration
8:00am to 11:45am EST, In-Person

Location: 89 Chestnut St, Toronto, ON M5G 1R1 (Giovanni Room)

Highlighted Programs
PsA Program
Transition and QI 
Lupus Program
 

“Molecular Portraits of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Defining Clinical and Treatment Response EndoPhenotypes, Towards Precision Medicine”

Costantino Pitzalis is Versus Arthritis Professor of Rheumatology and Director of the Centre for Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London.

His research interests focus on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of inflammation and autoimmunity in chronic rheumatic conditions particularly rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

He leads a Research Team of approximately 50 Researchers (Clinicians/Scientists) and published over 350 peerreviewed papers in the field of inflammation, immunity and arthritis (h-index:76 / Citations: 18612).

He has been bestowed numerous awards including in 2021 the Heberden Medal/Oration the highest honour attributed by the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) and, among others, the Gerald Weissmann Prize, New York University School of Medicine, the EULAR/AMGEN Prize and the BSR Michael Mason Prize.

He has pioneered the development of minimally invasive ultrasound-guided biopsy and was the Chief Investigator of the first two worldwide biopsy-driven stratified-medicine randomised clinical trials (RCTs): STRAP and R4RA.

These trials led to the first description of specific synovial pathobiological patterns linked to clinical and treatment response phenotypes in early arthritis, established and refractory (multi-drug resistant) RA. They defined specific synovial molecular signatures that have paved the way to a set of new trials, funded by the EU Commission through the Horizon Europe programme.

These trials aim at testing the clinical utility of the molecular profile in the synovial biopsy to accurately allocate targeted therapies and may lead to the transformation of clinical practice through the development of new diagnostics to predict treatment response and define prognosis, as well as a new taxonomy of disease integrating molecular pathology into clinical algorithms.

“We finally have approved drugs for Lupus Nephritis: So now what?”

Dr. Brad H. Rovin is the Lee A. Hebert Professor of Nephrology. Dr. Rovin received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois and his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Illinois Medical School in Chicago, Illinois. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis Missouri, and a Fellowship in Nephrology at Washington University School of Medicine, St.  Louis. He joined the College of Medicine Faculty in 1990, became Director of the Division of Nephrology in 2004,  and served as Vice Chairman of Medicine for Research from 2009‐2019. In 2019 he became the Medical Director of  the Ohio State University Clinical Research Management Institute.  

Dr. Rovin has had several leadership roles in the American Society of Nephrology, including running the Glomerular  Diseases Pre‐Course and Co‐Editing NephSAP‐Glomerular Diseases, a continuing education program of the Society. Most recently he was appointed Deputy Editor of Kidney International, the flagship journal of the International  Society of Nephrology. He also is Co‐Chair for glomerular disease guideline development for the Kidney Disease  Improving Global Outcomes effort.  

Dr. Rovin studies the immunopathogenesis of glomerular and autoimmune diseases. He is heavily involved in  clinical trial development and design for investigator‐initiated and industry‐sponsored trials. He is a founding  member of NephroNet, a grass‐roots nephrology community clinical trial organization, and the Lupus Nephritis  Clinical Trials Network. He is and has been the Principal Investigator on several trials of novel therapeutics for glomerular diseases. 

“Update on the Treatment of ANCA-Associated Vasculitis”

Dr. Merkel is the Chief of Rheumatology and a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Merkel is an internationally recognized research and clinical expert in vasculitis and scleroderma and is an author on over 400 scientific publications. He is the Principal Investigator of the NIH-Sponsored Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium (VCRC), a leading international research infrastructure for vasculitis clinical investigation. Dr. Merkel’s research focuses on clinical trial design and conduct, outcome measure development, clinical epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and biomarker discovery.

Dr. Merkel received his MD from Yale University, his MPH from Harvard University, completed his residency training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Merkel has received the majority of his research support from the National Institutes of Health, the US Food and Drug Administration, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, with additional funding from industry sources and private foundations.

8:00am to 9:00am EST
Virtual (link TBC)

Speaker:  Dr. Rae Yeung

8:00am to 9:00am EST
Virtual (link TBC)

Speaker: Lourdes Maria Perez Chada

8:00am to 9:00am EST
Virtual (link TBC)

Speaker: Dr. Philip Mease   

8:00am to 9:00am EST
Virtual (link TBC)

Speaker:  Dr. Glen Hazlewood

8:00am to 9:00am EST
Virtual

Speaker: Teresa Semalulu

Teresa Semalulu is a Clinical and Research Fellow at the Toronto Lupus Program at Toronto Western Hospital. She completed a Master of Public Health (MPH) at the University at Buffalo and graduated from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. She then completed her Internal Medicine and Rheumatology training at McMaster University. She is currently a master’s student in the Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research (CEHCR) program at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME). She will be transferring to the PhD program, where her thesis will focus on exploring explore racial disparities in SLE.

8:00am to 9:00am EST
Virtual

Speaker: Dr. Claire Barber

Dr. Claire Barber MD PhD FRCPC is an associate professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Community Health Sciences in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She is a practicing rheumatologist with a focus on inflammatory arthritis. She is an epidemiologist and health services researcher with expertise in measuring care quality and models of care. She is the Scientific Director for the Bone and Joint Health Strategic Clinical Network (Alberta Health Services).

8:00am to 9:00am EST
Virtual

Speaker: Laura Passalent

Laura Passalent obtained her Bachelor’s of Science in Physical Therapy from the University of Toronto in 1995; completed a Masters of Health Science in Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Toronto in 2005, and is a certified Advanced Clinician Practitioner in Arthritis Care. Laura is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto, a Clinician Investigator with the Krembil Research Institute and works as a Physiotherapist Practitioner at the Schroeder Arthritis Institute, University Health Network. Her clinical and research focus is on the health service delivery and non-pharmacological management of the spondyloarthritis population.

8:00am to 9:00am EST
Virtual

Speaker:  Dr. Andre Ribeiro

Andre Ribeiro, MD MSc, is a Clinical Research Fellow at the Psoriatic Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Program at Women's College Hospital. He completed his medical education and a Master's in Medical Sciences at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and his Internal Medicine and Rheumatology training at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre. Ribeiro focuses on psoriatic arthritis research, is an active Young-GRAPPA member, participating in multiple projects, and was recently elected Chair of Young-GRAPPA.

8:00am to 9:00am EST
Virtual

Speaker: Nicolas S. Bodmer

Nicolas S. Bodmer is a PhD student in the Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research program at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME). He graduated from medical school at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and has been working in a med-tech and research company for over 10 years. Nicolas Bodmer’s research focuses on evidence synthesis, development of digital health innovations and evaluation of novel models of care.

8:00am to 9:00am EST
Virtual

Speaker: Dr. Tuhina Neogi

Dr. Tuhina Neogi is Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology at Boston University Schools of Medicine and of Public Health, the endowed Alan S. Cohen Professor of Rheumatology, and Chief of Rheumatology at Boston Medical Center. She completed her medical school, internal medicine, and rheumatology training at the University of Toronto. As a rheumatologist and PhD-trained epidemiologist, her research focuses on osteoarthritis and gout, with a particular focus on pain mechanisms.

8:00am to 9:00am EST
Virtual

Speaker: Wils Nielsen

Wils Nielsen is a PhD candidate with the Institute of Medical Science at UofT, in the Toronto Lupus Program at UHN since 2021, with a research focus on measurement science and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Wils is also the fellow for the OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology) Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Working Group.

Dr. Dana Jerome, Program Director
dana.jerome@wchospital.ca 

Melanie Moscovitch, Program Coordinator
rheumatology@utoronto.ca

Chief Medical Resident
rheumchief.utoronto@gmail.com

Resident Resources.