Therapeutic Workshop
First Things First - New Approaches to Treating Fibromyalgia are Coming into Focus but Where do Clinicians Start?
Thursday, October 30, 2008
9:30am - 10:45am
Marina
Fibromyalgia is becoming understood as a complex syndrome of conditions where the physician and patient will likely need to work together in determining which symptoms and clinical issues get treated first and where to move from there. This discussion will focus on the clinical features of fibromyalgia, the need for a multidisciplinary treatment approach and recent advances in therapeutic management.
Moderator
- Corey Davis, PhD, Managing Director, Senior Specialty Pharmaceuticals Analyst, Natixis Bleichroeder
Panelists
Advocacy:
- Lynne K. Matallana, President and Founder, National Fibromyalgia Association
Clinician:
- Philip Mease, MD, Director of Seattle Rheumatology Associates, Director of the Swedish Hill Hospital Rheumatology Clinical Research Division, Clinical Professor, University of Washington, Seattle
- I. Jon Russell, MD, PhD, Director of the University of Clinical Research Center, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio
- Andrew Holman, MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle
Who's Who
Corey Davis, PhD Dr. Davis joined Natixis Bleichroeder Inc. in 2006 to head up the Specialty Pharmaceuticals sector. Prior to joining Natixis Bleichroeder, he was a senior analyst covering the Specialty Pharmaceuticals sector for JPMorgan. Dr. Davis has covered the industry since joining Hambrecht and Quist in 1997. He was ranked “runner up” in each of the last three years (2003-2005) in the Institutional Investor All-American rankings and has placed in the top tier of the Greenwich Survey every year. In 2005, Dr. Davis was named to the Wall Street Journal’s “Best on the Street” survey in pharmaceuticals. He holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Princeton University and an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College.
Lynne K. Matallana Ms. Matallana was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in August 1995 after being seen by 37 doctors. She is one of an estimated 10 million people in the United States to be diagnosed with this life-altering, chronic pain disorder.
Ms. Matallana, a graduate of UCLA and the London School of Economics, was a partner in a prestigious southern California advertising firm prior to her developing fibromyalgia (FM). The intensity of the illness caused her to have to spend two years in bed, suffering with the pain and fatigue that fibromyalgia causes. Her frustration with the lack of treatments and support for people with FM inspired her to create an organization that would focus on awareness for this misunderstood illness. Using her past career knowledge in public relations and marketing, in 1997 she founded the National Fibromyalgia Association (NFA), a [501(c) 3] nonprofit organization, headquartered in Anaheim, Calif. The NFA works to develop and execute programs dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with fibromyalgia. Over the past 10 years, the NFA has grown into a major force in bringing FM to the forefront of research discussions and by providing education, support and assistance to people living with FM around the world.
The National Fibromyalgia Association publishes Fibromyalgia AWARE magazine, the first and only consumer magazine all about fibromyalgia, and hosts an award-winning website at www.FMaware.org. The NFA has taken a leading role in helping to develop the curriculum for many CME programs on FM and overlapping conditions.
Through the National Fibromyalgia Association, Ms. Matallana has assisted some of the country’s top fibromyalgia physicians and hospitals with funding for research and has written several chapters on fibromyalgia research issues for textbooks made available to medical students. She has developed and led multiple programs over the past seven years focused on patient advocacy issues, resulting in more than 1,000 government proclamations that call for research into the cause and cure of fibromyalgia. In 2004, she formed the NFA’s International Leaders Against Pain Coalition, comprised of support group leaders and patients advocates from around the world. Ms. Matallana co-authored an Internet study published in 2007 in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders that surveyed more than 2,500 people with fibromyalgia. The resulting data provided insight into several issues related to the patient’s perspectives and needs that have been published in multiple journal articles. Ms. Matallana is the author The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Fibromyalgia.
Philip Mease, MD Dr. Mease is Director of Seattle Rheumatology Associates, an independent rheumatology practice. He is also Director of the Swedish Hill Hospital Rheumatology Clinical Research Division and a Clinical Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Mease conducts clinical trials of emerging therapies for a number of rheumatic disease conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and osteoporosis. He has authored numerous articles and book chapters and is on review boards for Arthritis & Rheumatism, the Journal of Rheumatology, and the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. He is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Rheumatology, the King County Medical Society, and the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research.
I. Jon Russell, MD, PhD Dr. Russell is Associate Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and Director of the University Clinical Research Center. Dr. Russell has conducted research studies in immunology, pathogenesis, and management of rheumatic diseases and fibromyalgia syndrome. His research involves genetic and biophysiologic mechanisms of pain and stiffness in fibromyalgia syndrome. Dr. Russell has authored over 85 original publications, over 30 invited chapters in medical textbooks, and his research is reported in numerous lay articles. He was Founding President of the International MYOPAIN Society and currently serves as a Board Member for that organization. Dr. Russell was an author on the 1990 publication regarding the research classification (diagnosis of fibromyalgia syndrome-FMS). His biochemical research on spinal fluid, blood, and urine from patients with fibromyalgia set the stage for the development of therapeutic agents to treat fibromyalgia.
Andrew Holman, MD Dr. Holman practices rheumatology at Pacific Rhuematology Research in Renton, Washington and is also Accociate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington in the Division of Rheumatology. He has been Board Certified in internal medicine and rheumatology and has a special interest in new treatment options for fibromyalgia and complex inflammatory arthritis. He is past-president of the Northwest Rheumatism Society (2005) and a current member of the Advisory Board of the National Fibromyalgia Association.