Presented by Abhijeet Danve, MD, FACP, FACR, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Director Spondyloarthritis Clinic, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, participants should be better able to:

·        Identify axSpA in patients with inflammatory back pain via assessment of medical history, musculoskeletal symptoms and findings, and extra-articular manifestations and comorbidities

·        Apply classification criteria and diagnostic tests into clinical practice to support early detection of axSpA

·        Assess efficacy and safety data related to novel biologic options for axSpA, recognizing the potential clinical impact on the management of patients who do not respond well to traditional pharmacologic therapies

·        Employ treatment plans for individual patients with axSpA in accordance with current evidence, expert recommendations, and patient needs and preferences

·        Recognize the importance of collaborating with rheumatologists to provide optimal treatment and longitudinal support for patients with axSpA

Bio-

Dr. Abhijeet Danve is rheumatologist and Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Yale University, New Haven CT with particular interest in clinical and translational research focused on early diagnosis of axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). He is founding director of spondyloarthritis program at Yale. Dr. Danve has contributed original research articles, systematic reviews and review articles in the field of axSpA and his publications in reputed journals cover various aspects of axSpA such as biomarkers, screening and referral, treat to target strategy, role of complementary medicine and comorbidities.  He is member of Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN), and serves on Registry subcommittee of SPARTAN since 2017. Prior to joining Yale, Dr. Danve completed his clinical rheumatology fellowship at Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR and research fellowship at University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Danve is recipient of Marshall J Schiff Memorial research award (2013) and Distinguished Fellow award (2015) given by American College of Rheumatology. He lives in Rocky Hill CT with his wife Supriya and 2 boys. He loves to travel and has keen interest in Indian classical music.

General research focus and recent work-

His current research is focused on early diagnosis of axSpA by applying efficient and cost-effective screening and referral strategies. Dr. Danve has developed an online clinical screening tool for early identification of axSpA and he is conducting a funded clinical research study to evaluate its effectiveness. He is also trying to find new biomarkers for diagnosis of axSpA.

Dr. Danve has developed a comprehensive multidisciplinary spondyloarthritis program at Yale consisting rheumatologist, dermatologist, gastroenterologist, physical therapist and orthopedist which with aim of providing excellent care to axSpA patients and conducting high quality clinical and translational research. He is also interested in collecting patient reported outcomes and disease activity measures electronically using iPADs and integrate those into EMR for improving the quality of care delivery for axSpA.

Sponsored by PeerView Institute for Medical Education. This activity is supported by an educational grant from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.