In this podcast, Dr. Anna Wolska sits down with Dr. Eric Morand to discuss a groundbreaking effort to improve how lupus treatment success is measured in clinical trials. Dr. Morand explains why existing tools weren’t designed for tracking treatment response and describes a rigorous, patient-inclusive Delphi process that narrowed dozens of possible disease aspects down to eight meaningful domains. By involving patients at every step, the new measure focuses on what patients truly feel and function. Early work on defining precise assessments for each domain is underway, with practical use in trials expected by 2026, promising clearer results and faster access to new lupus therapies.

Read the paper published in LSM - https://doi.org/10.1136/lupus-2024-001484

Lupus nephritis, affecting nearly half of lupus patients, can cause severe kidney damage. Traditionally, high-dose glucocorticoids (~1 mg per kg prednisone) have been used despite significant side effects. In this episode, host Anna Wolska speaks with Dr. Amit Saxena, a rheumatologist and Associate Professor at NYU Langone Health, about his recent research on the use of glucocorticoids in treating kidney disease in lupus. His study pooled standard-of-care arms from several major clinical trials to compare the efficacy and safety of lower versus higher oral glucocorticoid doses—administered after an initial IV steroid pulse—in treating lupus nephritis.

Read the article published in LSM - https://doi.org/10.1136/lupus-2024-001351

Join Dr. Anna Wolska from the Lupus Foundation of America as she talks with Dr. Jim Oates about his recently published study in Lupus Science & Medicine on validating claims-based algorithms in Medicare data to identify SLE and lupus nephritis. Dr. Oates explains how ICD-10 coding and geospatial analysis (via the Lupus Index) can help pinpoint disparities, guide clinical trial recruitment, and reveal how location affects patient outcomes. The conversation covers the varying sensitivity and specificity of different coding algorithms, potential racial differences, and how overlaying socioeconomic and environmental data can shed light on lupus prevalence and improve healthcare resource allocation.

Read the article published in LSM - https://doi.org/10.1136/lupus-2024-001329