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 the 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 | Poster Tour – Break |
| 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, Toronto |
| 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 —Adam Meyer, MD, Hackensack University Medical Center |
| 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
Axial spondyloarthritis monocytes display mitochondrial changes associated with inflammation (Courtney Cowan) Mutated Nod2 enhances Th17 expansion and autoimmune uveitis in a T cell-dependent manner (Leah Huey) Validation of MRI Structural Lesions Versus Computed Tomography in the Sacroiliac Joints of Patients with Axial Spondyloarthritis in the EchoSpA Inception Cohort (Natalya Horbal) Radiographic Sacroiliitis Progression in Psoriatic Arthritis (Virginia Carrizo Abarza) Effects of Sex and Race on the Genetic Association of CARD9 S12N on Axial Spondyloarthritis (Kofi Asare-Konadu) |
| 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 |
| 10:30-10:45 AM | Break |
| Advances in Imaging of axSpA | |
| 10:45-11:15 AM | Imaging Advances in SpA, Low Dose CT, PET, Synthetic CT, Thinking Beyond MRI —Denis Poddubnyy, MD, PhD, University of Toronto |
| 11:15 AM-11:45 AM | ASAS-SPARTAN Classification Criteria and New Directions —Walter Maksymowych, MD, FRCP, University of Alberta |
| 11:45-12:30 PM | Lunch |
| Year in Review | |
| 12:30-1:00 PM | Year in Review: Basic/Translational —Matthew Stoll, MD, PhD, MSCS, University of Alabama at Birmingham |
| 1:00-1:30 PM | Year in Review: Clinical —Mohammed Bittar, MD, Oregon Health & Science University |
| 1:30-2:00 PM | Year in Review: Clinical Trials —Wilson Bautista Molano, MD, PhD, University Hospital Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá, Columbia |
| AI in Medicine/Science | |
| 2:00-2:30 PM | Promise & Peril: Navigating the GenAI Wave in Healthcare —Muhammad Mamdani, PharmD, MA, MPH, University of Toronto |
| 2:30-3:00 PM | AI and MI in Discovery Science for PsA and axSpA —Igor Jurisica, PhD, University of Toronto |
| 3:00-3:30 PM | AI in SpA Imaging: the Promises and Pitfalls —Keno Bressem, MD, Technical University Munich |
| 3:30-4:45 PM | Poster Tour – Break |
| 4:45-5:45 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 APPs and Other Touch Points |
| The Great Debate | |
| 5:45-6:30 PM | Invert the Pyramid in Treatment of axSpA —Marina Magrey, MD, University Hospitals and Philip Mease, MD, Swedish Medical Center |
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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| Live Visualization of Neutrophil Infiltration in Early Stages of New Bone Formation in SpA —Brian Wu, PhD, Queen’s University, Ontario |
|
| A Joint Effort: Comparing Treatment Outcomes in Patients with IBD Associated axSpAx —Savannah Bowman, MD, UTHealth Houston |
|
| 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 —Laura Passalent, BScPT, MHSc, ACPAC, Schroeder Arthritis Institute, University Health Network (UHN) |
| 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 |
