Accounting for the Impact of EGPA on Patient Quality of Life

This activity is part of a series

Faculty

Michael E. Wechsler, MD, MMSc
Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
Director, The Cohen Family Asthma Institute
National Jewish Health
Denver, CO
Michael E. Wechsler, MD, MMSc

Michael E. Wechsler is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at National Jewish Health (NJH) in Denver, Director of the NJH/Cohen Family Asthma Institute, and Associate Vice President for Innovation and Industry Relations at NJH. In addition to clinical work in pulmonary and critical care medicine, Professor Wechsler’s research focuses on clinical and translational asthma with emphasis on clinical trials in asthma, novel asthma therapies, bronchial thermoplasty, asthma pharmacogenomics, and management of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (i.e. Churg-Strauss Syndrome). He has led studies focusing on novel biologic agents for asthma and related diseases, including benralizumab, dupilumab, mepolizumab, reslizumab, and tezepelumab. He has published more than 270 peer-reviewed manuscripts relating to asthma, EGPA, and eosinophilic lung diseases. He was a member of the Steering Committee and site Principal Investigator (PI) of the NIH-sponsored Asthma Clinical Research Network (ACRN, now called AsthmaNet), a multicenter asthma clinical trials consortium, and currently serves as the PI of the Denver site of the Precision Intervention in Severe/Exacerbating Asthma (PRECISE) network. A member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, he has participated in many different task forces related to the study of eosinophilic lung diseases that were sponsored by the NIH, the FDA, the European Respiratory Society, and the International Eosinophil Society. He is currently Associate Editor of the journal Chest and has served as Associate Editor of the journal Allergy and on the editorial board of the European Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Wechsler received AB and MMSc degrees from Harvard University in Boston and an MD degree from McGill University in Montreal. He completed medical training at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, and as part of the Harvard Combined Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Training Program.</br.

Jennifer Gordon, PhD
Patient Partner, Vasculitis Foundation
Co-Principal Investigator, Vasculitis Patient Powered Research Network, Kansas City, MO
Jennifer Gordon, PhD

Dr. Gordon was diagnosed with EGPA, a form of ANCA-associated vasculitis, in 2014. She holds a PhD in Pathology and spent nearly 30 years working as an NIH-funded biomedical researcher studying neurological disorders and infectious diseases, most recently as an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She recently retired from academia and is now Head of Research & Development at Excision BioTherapeutics, a biotech start-up company developing CRISPR-based gene editing for the treatment of HIV and other viral diseases. Jenn is active in the vasculitis community. She is a patient partner in the Vasculitis Patient Powered Research Network (VPPRN) and a member of the VPPRN-VCRC EGPA Registry Joint Steering Committee. She currently hosts the EGPA Caf? Zoom Chat through the Vasculitis Foundation. You can find her blog online at www.vasculitides.com or follow her on Twitter at @vasculitides.

Statement of Need

Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) is a rare form of vasculitis that often goes unrecognized or misdiagnosed. Patients with EGPA go an average of 4 years between initial symptom onset and diagnosis. Clinicians fail to recognize early, non-specific symptoms of EGPA, delaying treatment that could prevent eosinophil-mediated organ damage. Patients with EGPA are frequently treated with corticosteroids which can result in adverse events that compound the impact of the disease. Newer treatments targeting IL-5 and eosinophil activity may allow for corticosteroid tapering or discontinuation and improvement in patient quality of life. Clinicians should utilize shared decision making to develop treatment plans that prioritize patient-centered goals for managing disease symptoms and minimizing medication toxicity.

Dr. Jennifer Gordon was diagnosed with EGPA in 2014 and is the Vasculitis Patient Powered Research Network (VPPRN) Co-Principal Investigator and co-Lead Patient-Partner in the EGPA Registry. During this 30-minute CMEO Snack, Dr. Gordon will join Dr. Michael Wechsler, a national expert in EGPA. They will discuss how EGPA impacts patient quality of life and how clinicians can better detect and manage hidden symptoms of disease. Patient perspectives on delayed diagnosis, disease impact on their daily functioning, treatment options, and chronic steroid use will be included in the discussion.

Learning Objective

Assess how EGPA and associated conditions impact patient QoL.

Financial Support

This educational activity is supported by an educational grant from GSK.

Target Audience

Physicians, physician associates (PAs), nurse practitioners (NPs), nurses, and pharmacists specializing in rheumatology, allergy/immunology, pulmonology, nephrologist, internal medicine, and primary care medicine

Credit Information

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Activity UAN: JA0007185-0000-22-166-H01-P

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Dr. Wechsler reports the following financial relationships:

Advisory Board/Consultant: Amgen Inc.; AstraZeneca; Avalo Therapeutics, Inc.; Boehringer Ingelheim; Cerecor Inc.; Cohero Health, Inc.; CytoReason LTD; Eli Lilly and Company; Equillium Bio; GSK; Incyte; Kinaset Therapeutics; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Om Pharma; Phylaxis Bioscience, LLC; PULMATRiX, Inc.; RAPT Therapeutics; Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Restorbio; Roche/Genentech, Inc.; Sanofi/Genzyme.; Sentien Biotechnologies, Inc.; Sound Biologics; Tetherex Pharmaceuticals; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.; and Upstream Bio

Research Support: Amgen Inc.; AstraZeneca; Avalo Therapeutics, Inc.; GSK; Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.; and Sanofi/Genzyme

Speakers Bureau: AstraZeneca; GSK; Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.; and Sanofi

Dr. Gordon reports the following financial relationships:

Consultant/Employee/Stock Options: Excision BioTherapeutics, a biotech start-up company developing gene editing technology for the treatment of infectious disease. This relationship is unrelated to this CE activity.

Disclosures were obtained from the following peer reviewer and CME Outfitters, LLC, staff, with no disclosures to report:

  • Michael Franks, APRN, AGACNP-BC, FNP-BCD (peer reviewer)
  • Thomas Mitchell (planning committee)
  • Kasey Brandt, PharmD (planning committee)
  • Susan H. Yarbrough, CHCP (planning committee)
  • Sandra Caballero, PharmD (planning committee)
  • Sharon Tordoff (planning committee)

Faculty of this CE activity may include discussions of products or devices that are not currently labeled for use by the FDA. The faculty have been informed of their responsibility to disclose to the audience if they will be discussing off-label or investigational uses (any uses not approved by the FDA) of products or devices.

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SN-180-122922-06

Accounting for the Impact of EGPA on Patient Quality of Life
Event Date: 12/29/2022 at 5:00 am EST