The ACR’s Collaborative Initiatives Promote Awareness of Lupus, Rheumatic Diseases

The Lupus Initiative has been so successful that the ACR has established a Collaborative Initiatives department. As the name suggests, the department’s target stakeholders include a broad circle of collaborators and partners, including ACR and ARHP members in private practice and academia, as well as private, public and not-for-profit entities. The department uses lupus and other rheumatic diseases as case studies to advance health equity, eliminate health disparities and improve the quality of patient lives.

The Lupus Initiative has been so successful that the ACR has established a Collaborative Initiatives department. … The department uses lupus & other rheumatic diseases as case studies to advance health equity, eliminate health disparities & improve the quality of patient lives.

Recently, ACR leadership established a working group of ACR and ARHP members to guide the strategic direction of the Collaborative Initiatives department. The inaugural volunteer members are Greg Dennis, MD, Candace Feldman, MD, MPH, David Karp, MD, PhD (ACR Board liaison), Bernardo A. Pons-Estel, MD (international member), Jillian A. Rose, LMSW (ARHP member), and S. Sam Lim, MD, MPH (chair). Over the next several months, the working group will identify relevant funding and commercialization opportunities, provide guidance on expanding the reach of the current projects, and ensure alignment of activities with the ACR mission, vision and core values, as well as ensuring the continued vitality of The Lupus Initiative.

I welcome your feedback and suggestions to continue to expand the ACR village, raise awareness about lupus, and decrease health disparities for our patients with rheumatic diseases.

Provider, patient, educator and student resources are available at thelupusinitiative.org.

Joan M. Von Feldt, MD, MSEd, FACR, FACP, is president of the ACR and a professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also staff physician at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center.