Solving the patient puzzle:
A pragmatic approach to SpA management

Georg Schett is Professor of Internal Medicine and Head of the Department of Internal Medicine III for Rheumatology and Immunology at the Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.

Professor Schett graduated from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, in 1994. After working as a scientist at the Institute of BioMedical Aging Research of the Austrian Academy of Science in Innsbruck, he joined the Department of Medicine at the University of Vienna, Austria, where he completed his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and subsequently in Rheumatology.

Professor Schett’s scientific work includes a broad spectrum of clinical and immunologic issues, particularly the molecular basis of immune-mediated inflammatory disease. He was awarded the renowned START Award in 2002 and established a research group for arthritis in Vienna. In 2007, his research led to the elucidation of the phenomenon of lupus erythematosus cells. In collaboration with colleagues in 2008, he initiated the priority program IMMUNOBONE in Germany to explore interactions between the skeletal and immune systems. Since 2015, Professor Schett has led the German Research Foundation Collaborative Research Centre in Erlangen, and he also coordinates the project METARTHROS to investigate the impact of metabolism on arthritis. His scientific work has been honored with several awards including the renowned START Award and the Carol-Nachman Prize from Wiesbaden, Germany. He has published >500 peer-reviewed papers.

Denis Poddubnyy is Professor of Rheumatology at the Charité University Hospital, Berlin, Germany. He received his medical degree from Saratov State Medical University, Saratov, Russia in 2003, and also completed his training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at the same institution before moving to Berlin. In 2008, Professor Poddubnyy completed his PhD thesis on cardiovascular pathology in ankylosing spondylitis. He has worked as a staff physician and researcher at the Charité University Hospital, Berlin since 2008, and he completed his lecturer qualification thesis on the prediction and prevention of disease progression in early axial spondyloarthritis in 2013. During 2014–2016, Professor Poddubnyy coordinated the Clinical Research Unit at the Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin. In April 2016, he was appointed full Professor and Head of the Rheumatology Unit at Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité University Hospital, Berlin.

Professor Poddubnyy is a member of the executive committee of the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society (ASAS). Since 2003, his research activities have focused on early diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes in patients with axial spondyloarthritis. Professor Poddubnyy is the author of numerous peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on the topic of spondyloarthritis.

Philip J. Mease is Clinical Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Director of Rheumatology Research at Swedish-Providence Health Systems, Seattle, and has a clinical practice based at Seattle Rheumatology Associates, Seattle, WA, USA.

He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Rheumatology at the University of Washington, WA, USA.

Professor Mease is past president and founding organizer of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA), and a member of the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society (ASAS) and the Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN). He is also a highly active member of many other professional organizations including the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials (OMERACT) research organization, the arthritis section of the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM), the Consortium of Rheumatology Researchers of North America (CORRONA), The Rheumatology Education Group (TREG), the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), the ACR-National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) Psoriatic Arthritis treatment guidelines task force, and the Northwest Rheumatism Society. Professor Mease has also served in an educational and advisory role for the US Food and Drug Administration for spondyloarthritis.

Professor Mease’s research interests include psoriatic arthritis, spondyloarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, and osteoporosis, with specific focus on disease state, outcome measures, and the efficacy and safety of emerging therapies. Professor Mease is an editorial board member of numerous journals and has authored >400 research papers, numerous abstracts, and book chapters. His seminal paper published in The Lancet in 2000 established the efficacy of anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy in psoriatic arthritis.

Dirk Elewaut is Full Professor of Rheumatology and Immunology and Chair of the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology at Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium, a European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) and Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) center of excellence. He received his medical degree at Ghent University in 1991 and his PhD in 1997 at the same institution. Following his postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Diego and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, CA, USA, he joined the faculty of the Department of Rheumatology at Ghent University Hospital in 2001.

He has published >250 scientific publications and is heading a team of 20 researchers at the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Inflammation. The team joined the VIB Inflammation Research Center in 2015, where Dirk Elewaut has been appointed as Principal Investigator. His research interests are centered around translational aspects of immune regulation to combat inflammatory arthritis and associated joint damage, with a special focus on the link between gut and joint disease in spondyloarthritis.