Treating to Target with Novel Agents in Rheumatoid Arthritis

 

Vibeke Strand, MD, MACR, FACP, is an adjunct clinical professor in the division of immunology and rheumatology at Stanford University School of Medicine. She serves as a consultant in clinical research and regulatory affairs to pharmaceutical and biotech companies. She graduated from Swarthmore College with honors, and she attended the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, where she also completed her subspecialty fellowship in rheumatology. She was 1 of 8 in the first primary care internal medicine residency at Michigan State University. 

 

Dr Strand has been a clinical rheumatologist for more than 35 years. Her professional interests include development of outcome measures methodology and clinical and regulatory strategies leading to approval of new agents for treatment of autoimmune diseases. Since 1991, Dr Strand has led a consulting practice offering clinical research and regulatory expertise. 

 

Dr Strand has authored more than 230 original publications and reviews, as well as 50 chapters, and has co-edited several books and multiple proceedings. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Master of the American College of Rheumatology, serves on the editorial board of multiple journals, and is a member of the Cosmos Club.

 

Martin Jan Bergman, MD, FACR, FACP, FCPP, is clinical associate professor of medicine at the Drexel University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, and chief of the division of rheumatology at Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania. He is also a full-time clinical rheumatologist in a private practice setting, with over 25 years of clinical experience.

In addition to issues affecting the running of a successful clinical practice, Dr Bergman is interested in issues facing practicing rheumatologists on a daily basis. With collaborators, Dr Bergman has played a pivotal role in the development of patient management tools, particularly the RAPID 3. This disease measurement tool is now an outcomes measure accepted by the American College of Rheumatology and used worldwide.

Dr Bergman is a recognized leader in the field of clinical and patient reported outcomes, and has spoken both nationally and internationally on this and other topics. For his work, he has received the Joseph L Hollander Award for Excellence and Achievement in Rheumatology by the Southeast Pennsylvania Arthritis Foundation and has been elected as a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

 

Eric M. Ruderman, MD, is a professor of medicine and clinical practice director of the rheumatology clinic at Northwestern University. His primary responsibilities include patient care, fellowship teaching, clinical administration, and management of clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis and other forms of inflammatory arthritis. He also co-directs a cooperative clinic for the management of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

Dr Ruderman received his undergraduate degree in English literature from Princeton University and his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After a residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, he completed a rheumatology fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital, with a concurrent research fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health. 

 

Dr Ruderman has served as principal investigator on over 50 clinical trials, and he is involved in several projects that link clinical practice and the research agenda in the rheumatology clinic. In addition to his research efforts, he serves as a vice chair of Northwestern University's institutional review board. He is the immediate past chair of the Communications and Marketing Committee of the American College of Rheumatology and a co-editor of their Hotline newsletter. Dr Ruderman is the associate editor for the rheumatoid arthritis section of Journal of Rheumatology.