Advanced Handbook of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Introduction.- Disease classification.- Disease manifestation.- Diagnosis.- Treatments.- Therapies in late-stage clinical development.- Specific issues.- Outcome, prognosis, and perspectives.

Professor Ronald F van Vollenhoven is Chief of the Unit for Clinical Therapy Research, Inflammatory Diseases (ClinTRID) at the Karolinska Institute, and of the Clinical Trials Unit Rheumatology at the Karolinska University Hospital. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Leiden in The Netherlands. After graduating in 1984 he pursued immunology research at Cornell Medical College in New York, followed by a residency (specialty training) in internal medicine at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and a fellowship in rheumatology at Stanford University in Palo Alto following which he received American Board of Internal Medicine certification in both internal medicine and rheumatology. From 1993 to 1998 Professor van Vollenhoven held a faculty appointment as Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology at Stanford University, and from 1995 he was the Medical Services Chief and Fellowship Director in that division. In 1998 Professor van Vollenhoven moved to Stockholm, Sweden, where he worked as a Senior Physician and Chief of the Clinical Trials Unit in the Department of Rheumatology at the Karolinska University Hospital and Associate Professor of Rheumatology; and in 2010, he was appointed in his current position as Professor and Unit Chief at the Karolinska Institute. Professor van Vollenhoven's research interests focus around the development and systematic evaluation of biologic and immunomodulatory treatments for the rheumatic diseases. With his co-workers, he has established the Stockholm registry for biological therapies (the STURE database) for this purpose, which has supported research projects relating to clinical efficacy, pharmacology, outcomes, and pharmacoeconomics. He has been principal investigator in many clinical trials of novel therapies in rheumatic diseases and has contributed to a number of important investigator-initiated trials including the SWEFOT trial. He has published over 300