Dr. Eric Morand appointed as the Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor by Monash University

The Monash University Council has announced the appointment of Professor Eric Morand as a Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor.

The title of Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor is the most prestigious honour conferred on serving professors at Monash University and is only awarded to professors of exceptional distinction who have made high-level and sustained contributions to their discipline, the University and the community.

Dr. Alexandra Legge receives the inaugural Quigley Family Endowed Chair in Rheumatology

Dr. Alexandra Legge has received the newly appointed and first-ever chairholder of the Quigley Family Endowed Chair in Rheumatology, a long-term research position supported by the Quigley family.

Dr. Gladman receives top honour

SLICC member, University Health Network in Toronto Researcher, and Clinician Dr. Dafna Gladman has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada. This prestigious distinction—one of the country’s highest civilian honours—recognizes her foundational contributions to the field of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and efforts to advance our understanding of this chronic disease. PsA is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes joint inflammation, pain, and stiffness, often alongside psoriasis.

The COVID-19 Rheumatology Patient Experience Survey

Thank you again for supporting the COVID–19 Global Rheumatology Alliance!

Today, we launched The COVID-19 Rheumatology Patient Experience Survey.

This survey is for adult patients with a rheumatic illness or the parents of a child with a rheumatic illness. With this information, we hope to obtain insights about how best to prevent or treat COVID-19 as well as understand the challenges patients are facing in this uncertain time.

The COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance: Provider-Entered Registry

Our mission is to create a secure, de-identified, international case reporting registry and curate and disseminate the outputs from that registry. It is our hope that the information collected will help guide rheumatology clinicians in assessing and treating patients with rheumatologic disease and in evaluating the risk of infection in patients on immunosuppression.

We are asking that clinicians use this site to report any and all cases of COVID-19 in rheumatology patients, including those with mild or no symptoms. We anticipate that completion of the case report form will take 5-10 minutes and no protected health information is requested. We plan to use the relevant information from these cases to provide expeditious updates to the global rheumatology community.

The success of this voluntary effort depends on our joint participation and the breadth of information collected. We ask that you share this site with your colleagues internationally and encourage reporting.

We were inspired by our colleagues in the IBD community who have put forth the helpful https://covidibd.org/ registry and urge anyone with information about coronavirus cases in patients with IBD to use the case reporting form on that site.

Thank you for your contribution to this important work.

The COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance Team

Original Article: Trial of Anifrolumab in Active Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Monthly administration of anifrolumab resulted in a higher percentage of patients
with a response (as defined by a composite end point) at week 52 than did placebo,
in contrast to the findings of a similar phase 3 trial involving patients with SLE that
had a different primary end point. The frequency of herpes zoster was higher with
anifrolumab than with placebo.