Studying the comparative effectiveness of gout treatments is hindered by the difficulty of identifying instances of gout flare. Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers have determined that combining claims data with information from narrative notes in the electronic health record improves the capture of gout flares.

A recent scientific statement by The Lupus Foundation of America’s Health Disparities Advisory Panel, which includes Karen Costenbader, MD, MPH, addresses the relationship between social determinants of health and racial and ethnic disparities in lupus. It also recommends potential interventions to reduce disparities.

Alisa Mueller, MD, PhD, Takanori Sasaki, MD, PhD, Deepak Rao, MD, PhD, and colleagues have demonstrated that for patients with unusual autoimmune or inflammatory conditions, cellular and transcriptomic immunophenotyping can serve as complementary diagnostic tools and guide treatment decisions.

Leaders from the Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation and Immunity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital presented over 120 abstracts and received several awards at the American College of Rheumatology’s 2023 annual Convergence conference. Read about a select portion of their research shared at the meeting.

Sara K. Tedeschi, MD, MPH, played a key role in developing the recently released American College of Rheumatology and European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology classification criteria for symptomatic calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease. She discusses the collaboration that went into the work and more.

New research from the Brigham is providing novel insights into rheumatoid arthritis pathology and helping to advance targeted drug development and predict treatment response. Michael Brenner, MD, and Soumya Raychaudhuri, MD, PhD, discuss the efforts of a consortium of members from academic medical centers worldwide.