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The Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology has a tradition of excellence in patient care, education, and research for more than fifty years. Our clinical activities emphasize care of both common and rare rheumatic diseases. We have outpatient clinics devoted to all types of autoimmune diseases and musculoskeletal disorders. Our faculty have a wide range of clinical and research interests, with specific expertise in systemic lupus erythematosus, myositis, vasculitis, scleroderma, and autoinflammatory disorders.
We are committed to a mission of providing the highest quality care for patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and mentoring and training medical students, residents, fellows, and young faculty.
Remarkable advances in drug discovery, mechanisms of disease, epidemiology, outcome research, and other related fields make a career in academic rheumatology an exciting career opportunity. The University of Pittsburgh and UPMC have a long tradition of multidisciplinary collaboration. Through our joint clinics, we partner with specialists in pulmonology, renal, dermatology, and ophthalmology.
The faculty in the Division of Rheumatology, combined with cutting-edge clinical, educational, and patient care resources, provide for ongoing success of rheumatology at the University of Pittsburgh.
We welcome the opportunity to tell you more about our efforts in 2023 and hope you'll consider voting for UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside in the U.S. News & World Report "Best Hospitals" survey.
Dana P. Ascherman, MD
Chief, Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology
Professor of Medicine
David J. Helfrich, MD
Clinical Chief, Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology
Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine
Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside is proud to be nationally recognized by U.S. News & World Report for excellence in rheumatology.
Five UPMC rheumatologists are part of Pittsburgh Magazine’s Top Doctors® list, which is compiled by Castle Connolly. The Castle Connolly Top Doctor selection process is entirely merit-based. Castle Connolly’s peer-to-peer nominations and a rigorous research process ensures only the most qualified physicians are included.
Heroes in the Fight Awards Celebration - The Myositis Association
The Myositis Association recently honored Rohit Aggarwal, MD, MS, with its Heroes in Research Award, which recognizes researchers and clinicians working hard to make progress in the care and treatment of myositis diseases.
Dana Ascherman, MD, division chief, professor of Medicine, and Margaret Jane Miller Endowed Professorship for Arthritis Research in the School of Medicine, was the event’s Medical Honoree.
Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology Promotions
Congratulations to Christine Peoples, MD, a national leader in telerheumatology, who was promoted to associate professor of Medicine and Partha Biswas, PhD, an expert in kidney immunobiology, who was promoted to professor of Medicine with tenure.
The University of Pittsburgh recently launched a pioneering clinical trial, Myositis Interstitial Lung Disease (MINT), and recruited and enrolled its first patient. MINT is the first decentralized clinical trial of its kind in the nation and is funded through a $10 million grant from Boehringer Ingelheim. Rohit Aggarwal, MD, MS, is the principal investigator of the study.
Clinician-scientist Didem Saygin, MD, is an assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She joined the Division in July 2022 to continue her research program and clinical care of patients with rheumatologic disorders, specifically myositis, in the division’s Myositis Center of Excellence, one of the oldest and largest dedicated myositis centers in the United States.
New Multidisciplinary Clinic for Vasculitis Patients at UPMC | UPMC Physician Resources
The UPMC Rheumatology/Renal Vasculitis Clinic is the product of a collaboration between Sebastian E. Sattui, MD, MS, assistant professor of Medicine and director of the UPMC Vasculitis Center, and Syeda B. Ahmad, MD, assistant professor of Medicine and medical director of the Glomerular Disease Clinic at UPMC.
A Nature Immunology study led by University of Pittsburgh and National Institutes of Health researchers sheds light on how a rare type of helper T cell, called Th9, can drive allergic disease, suggesting new precision medicine approaches to treating allergies in patients with high levels of Th9. Daniella Schwartz, MD, was senior author of the study.
The study, published in the journal Rheumatology (Oxford) in June 2023, was led by Cristina M. Padilla, MD, clinical instructor and T32 postdoctoral research associate. Robert Lafyatis, MD, professor of medicine and director of the UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Scleroderma Center, was the study's senior author.
Vladimir Liarski, MD, MS, is an assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Liarski joined the Division in 2022. Before joining UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh, he conducted his research and clinical work at the University of Chicago.
Faculty from the UPMC Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology published research that explores the discordance between the physician and patient global disease activity in one third of myositis patients, primarily driven by fatigue, pain, and physical activity. Didem Saygin, MD, was a co-author of this study.
A team of researchers, including Mehret Birru Talabi, MD, conducted focus groups with rheumatology providers to elicit solutions for overcoming barriers to sexual and reproductive health care. Providers identified many potential solutions and facilitators to enhancing this care that might serve as a foundation for intervention development.
UPMC Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology Research Grants
A number of faculty members received new grant funding this year to support a variety of research projects.
Reproductive Health in Women with Systemic Autoimmune Disease | UPMC (upmcphysicianresources.com)
In this CME, Mehret Birru Talabi, MD, PhD, describes pregnancy outcomes among people with systemic lupus ethreymosis, discusses medication safety in pregnancy, and describes contraception safety.
Introduction to Rare/Genetic Rheumatic Diseases | UPMC (upmcphysicianresources.com)
In this CME, Daniella Schwartz, MD, discusses how to identify patients at high risk for germline and somatic mutations causing rheumatic diseases, how to appropriately work patients up for rare genetic diseases by ordering the correct clinical laboratory tests, and how to identify tertiary and quaternary referral centers that can aid in the diagnosis and treatment of rare genetic diseases.
Myositis: Update on Diagnosis and Management | UPMC (upmcphysicianresources.com)
In this CME, Rohit Aggarwal, MD, MS, discusses how to explain the diagnostic process of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, recall the distinctive clinical phenotypes associated with myositis specific autoantibodies, and describe the treatment updates in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies.
In this CME, Chester V. Oddis, MD, and Dana Ascherman, MD, discuss the clinical features of the anti-synthetase syndrome, the characteristics of autoimmune interstitial lung disease, and more.