Early Identification and Diagnosis of Axial Spondylarthritis
Nonmember Price: 40.00
Member Price: 30.00
40.00
Dr. Mohamad Bittar earned his medical degree from the American University of Beirut. He completed his internal medicine residency at Indiana University School of Medicine and Rheumatology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. In 2022, he earned a master of science degree in epidemiology with a focus on clinical investigation. He is currently an assistant professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).

Dr. Bittar has a special interest in axial spondyloarthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. He worked on multiple research and educational projects in this field.
He is the co-chair of the Education committee of SPARTAN (spondyloarthritis research and treatment network). He is also an active member of international spondyloarthritis societies (Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society/ASAS and Group for research and assessment of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis/GRAPPA) where he serves on several sub-committees. He is also an active member of the American College of Rheumatology and serves on the ACR CME Oversight subcommittee.

The primary objective of this session is to educate osteopathic family medicine physicians about clinical features that suggest the presence of axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) and to prompt consideration of referral to a rheumatologist.
The lack of familiarity with clinical features of axSpA including IBP amongst non-rheumatology health care providers is likely a major contributor to the diagnostic delay in axSpA. The time to diagnosis in axSpA continues to average 6 - 10 years which is substantially longer than in psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Importantly, the patients most likely to respond to therapy are younger, earlier in their disease course and there is evidence that delayed diagnosis in axSpA is associated with poorer physical function, negative psychological impact and higher cost. Thus, there is a critical window of opportunity to intervene. Delays in diagnosis could result in significant shortening of this window or missing it entirely.

Learning Objectives
-Develop an awareness of axSpA as treatable cause of back pain.
Identify other common clinical features of axSpA that occur outside the spine.
-Understand appropriate testing for a patient with chronic back pain suspected of axSpA and apply criteria for referral to rheumatology.
-Gain knowledge of basic principles of diagnosis and treatment of axSpA as applied by rheumatologists.
-Recognize inflammatory back pain pattern as a typical presentation of axSpA.