Agenda
Download 2026 Annual Meeting Agenda PDF
Thursday, May 14
| 7:00-8:00 AM | Breakfast |
| SPONDYLOARTHRITIS IMAGING WORKSHOP | |
| 8:00-8:15 AM | Welcome and Introduction to Interactive Imaging Workshop —Denis Poddubnyy, MD, PhD, University of Toronto |
| 8:15-9:00 AM | Approach to Radiography in axSpA —Nigil Haroon, MD, PhD, University of Toronto |
| 9:00-10:00 AM | Imaging of Peripheral SpA —Rakesh Mohankumar, FRCPC, University of Toronto |
| 10:00-11:30 AM | MRI in axSpA —Denis Poddubnyy, MD, PhD, University of Toronto |
| 11:30-11:50 AM | AI in imaging of AxSpA —Keno Bressem, MD, Technical University Munich |
| 12:00-1:00 PM | Lunch |
| SPARTAN SCIENTIFIC MEETING | |
| 1:00-1:30 PM | Welcome to SPARTAN Annual Meeting —Matthew Stoll, MD, PhD and Nigil Haroon, MD, PhD |
| Therapeutics in axSpA | |
| 1:30-2:00 PM | Therapeutics in axSpA, What Works —Carla Goncalves, Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil |
| 2:00-2:30 PM | What Did Not Work —Atul Deodhar, MD, Oregon Health & Science University |
| 2:30-3:00 PM | Why Do Some Therapies Work and Some Don’t, What is in the Pipeline —Akihiro Nakamura, MD, PhD, Queen’s University, Ontario |
| 3:00-4:30 PM | Break with Posters and Poster Tour |
| Gut-Joint Axis in SpA | |
| 4:30-4:50 PM | IBD: Recent Advances in our Understanding of Pathogenesis —John T. Chang, MD, University of California San Diego |
| 4:50-5:00 PM | Integrin Bridges: Linking Gut Inflammation to Joint Pathogenesis —Zoya Qaiyum, MSc, Schroeder Arthritis Institute |
| 5:00-5:20 PM | Gut Joint Axis (Host-Microbe Interactions and Key Cellular Responses: What Decides the Destiny of the Host? —Kristi Kuhn, MD, PhD, University of Colorado School of Medicine |
| 5:20-5:30 PM | How does IBD Impact Clinical Presentation of axSpA Patients —Patricia Remalante-Rayco, MD, University Health Network, Toronto |
| 5:30-5:50 PM | IBD and SpA: Considerations for Managing Patients with IBD and SpA —Joerg Ermann, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston |
| 5:50-6:00 PM | Questions & Discussion with Faculty |
| 7:00 PM | Dinner + Social Event |
Friday, May 15
| 7:00-8:00 AM | Breakfast |
| SPARTAN SCIENTIFIC MEETING | |
| 8:00-9:00 AM | Abstracts Session |
| Personalized Medicine | |
| 9:00-9:30 AM | Tissue Resident Memory T Cells: the Rookie with a Reputation —Siba Raychaudhuri, MD, University of California Davis |
| 9:30-10:00 AM | Predicting Response to IL17 Inhibitors in axSpA —Robert Inman, MD, Toronto Western Hospital |
| 10:00-10:30 AM | Personalized Medicine in PsA, Where are We Currently? —Vinod Chandran, MD, PhD, University of Toronto |
| 10:30-11:00 AM | Break |
| Advances in Imaging of axSpA | |
| 11:00-11:30 AM | Imaging Advances in SpA, Low Dose CT, PET, Synthetic CT, Thinking Beyond MRI —Denis Poddubnyy, MD, PhD, University of Toronto |
| 11:30 AM-12:00 PM | ASAS-SPARTAN Classification Criteria and New Directions —Walter Maksymowych, MD, FRCP, University of Alberta |
| 12:00-1:00 PM | Lunch |
| Year in Review | |
| 1:00-1:30 PM | Year in Review: Basic/Translational —Matthew Stoll, MD, PhD, MSCS, University of Alabama at Birmingham |
| 1:30-2:00 PM | Year in Review: Clinical —Mohammed Bittar, MD, Oregon Health & Science University |
| 2:00-2:30 PM | Year in Review: Clinical Trials —Wilson Bautista Molano, MD, PhD, University Hospital Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá, Columbia |
| AI in Medicine/Science | |
| 2:30-3:00 PM | Promise & Peril: Navigating the GenAI Wave in Healthcare —Muhammad Mamdani, PharmD, MA, MPH, University of Toronto |
| 3:00-3:30 PM | AI and MI in Discovery Science for PsA and axSpA —Igor Jurisica, PhD, University of Toronto |
| 3:30-4:00 PM | AI in SpA Imaging: the Promises and Pitfalls —Keno Bressem, MD, Technical University Munich |
| 4:00-4:15 PM | Break |
| 4:15-5:15 PM | Breakout Sessions |
| Clinical Group 1 | Clinical I: Develop a SPARTAN Registry and Identifying Disease Endotypes in SpA (SPARTAN Project) |
| Clinical Group 2 | Clinical II Collaborating on Imaging Studies in axSpA |
| Basic Science Group | Basic I: Animal Studies, Human Translational Studies, Fundamental Research |
| Basic II: Developing a Collaborating Network for Translational Science in North America | |
| Education Group | Education: Tools for Screening, Outreach to to APPs and Other Touch Points |
| The Great Debate | |
| 5:15-6:00 PM | Invert the Pyramid in Treatment of axSpA —Marina Magrey, MD, University Hospitals and Philip Mease, MD, Swedish Medical Center |
| 6:00-6:30 PM | Poster Tour and Reception |
Saturday, May 16
| 7:00-8:00 AM | Breakfast |
| SPARTAN MEMBER FORUM | |
| 8:00-9:00 AM | Fellowship/Grants Session |
| Characterizing Nociplastic Pain in Axial Spondyloarthritis: a Prospective Longitudinal Study —Mohamad Bittar, MD, Oregon Health & Science University |
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| Sex Differences in Real World Treatment Patterns and Drug Adherence in Axial Spondyloarthritis: a Comprehensive Assessment from the RISE Registry and Medicare Claims —Rachael Stovall, MD, MAS, University of Washington |
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| Live Visualization of Neutrophil Infiltration in Early Stages of New Bone Formation in SpA —Brian Wu, PhD, Queen’s University, Ontario |
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| A Joint Effort: Comparing Treatment Outcomes in Patients with IBD Associated axSpAx —Savannah Bowman, MD, UTHealth Houston |
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| SPARTAN Projects | |
| 9:00-9:15 AM | Spartan Research Policy Update: CLASSIC Data Sharing, Criteria for SPARTAN Project Endorsement —Jean Liew, MD —Joerg Ermann, MD |
| 9:15-9:30 AM | axSpA Treatment Guidelines —Liron Caplan, MD, PhD, University of Colorado |
| 9:30-9:45 AM | MRI: New Definitions for axSpA —Walter Maksymowych, MD, University of Alberta |
| 9:45-10:00 AM | Physiotherapy Knowledge / Practice Patterns Education Committee —Romy Schwabe, Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Bath, UK |
| 10:00-10:15 AM | BASIS Update —Sibel Aydin, MD, University of Ottawa |
| 10:15-10:30 AM | Break |
| SpA Cohorts and Collaboration Opportunities | |
| 10:30-11:15 AM | SpA Cohorts across SPARTAN Introduction to cohorts by PI UCSF Cohort (Gensler), PARC/NERDS (Walsh), PSOAS (Reveille/Hwang), NIH Cohort (Lotfi-Emran), SPARCC (Inman), VA PULSAR (Caplan) |
| 11:15 AM-12:00 PM | International Collaborator Connection Panel discussion PANLAR-ESPALDA (Wilson Bautista-Molano), Emirates SpA (Alnaqbi), Irish Registry (O’Shea) |
| 12:00-1:00 PM | Lunch |
| 1:00 PM | Annual Meeting Concludes |
