Dr Ferguson earned her medical degree in 1990 from the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. Her post-graduate training at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, included a pediatric internship from 1990–’91, a pediatric residency during the next two years, a pediatric immunology and rheumatology fellowship from 1993–’97 and a postdoctoral research fellowship from 1997–’99. Then she served as a research associate and pediatric fellow at the school from 1999–2000.
Keynote & Invited Speakers
Read about our Keynote & Invited Speakers below:
Professor Peter A. Merkel
Chief, Division of Rheumatology
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, USA
Dr. Peter Merkel is Chief of Rheumatology at the University of Pennsylvania and is an internationally recognized research and clinical expert in vasculitis and scleroderma, diseases he has studied for more than 20 years. He completed his residency training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Merkel’s research focuses on clinical trial design and conduct, outcome-measure development, clinical epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and biomarker discovery. He is the principal investigator of the NIH-sponsored Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium (VCRC), the leading research infrastructure for vasculitis clinical investigation in North America, with additional projects worldwide. He is also a founding member of the NIH Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network (RDCRN). He is the Chair of the OMERACT Vasculitis Working Group. Dr. Merkel has also conducted substantial research in scleroderma, with a focus on outcome measures and clinical-trial design. He receives the majority of his research support from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and receives additional funding from industry sources and private foundations. He has been an author on over 350 scientific publications..
DR Claire Owen
Rheumatologist
MBBS (Hons), PhD, FRACP, CCPU
Deputy Director of Rheumatology
Austin Health, Australia
Dr Claire Owen is also an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at The University of Melbourne.
Her predominant area of research concerns polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and its intersection with the related condition, giant cell arteritis (GCA). Since commencing her PhD studies in 2014, Claire has developed internationally-recognised expertise in the use of imaging modalities including ultrasound, MRI and whole-body PET/CT for both PMR and GCA.
Currently, Claire leads the dedicated PMR/GCA Clinic at Austin Health, which offers an evidence-based, protocolised model of care, delivered alongside a research program focusing on advancing the diagnosis and management of these rheumatic diseases.
Since 2017, Claire has also been an active contributor to the PMR Working Group of OMERACT, an international collaboration of clinicians, researchers and patient partners committed to improving outcome measures in rheumatology, and presently serves as the Group’s Co-Chair.
