
- This event has passed.
Psoriatic Arthritis: A Woman’s Toolkit to Soar Above the Pain
November 16, 2022 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm EST
More than 8 million individuals in the United States have psoriasis. This chronic inflammatory skin disease is characterized by patches of red or discolored and irritated skin that are often covered by flaky white or gray scales, depending on the skin type. An estimated 10-30% of people with psoriasis also develop psoriatic arthritis (PsA)–a type of inflammatory arthritis linked to psoriasis.
Approximately 40% of people with PsA report significant impacts on their everyday life, and although PsA occurs equally in women and men, women often report experiencing more fatigue and functional limitations. Women are also less likely to respond to some treatments and achieve remission than men.
Patients are not often assessed for joint pain during psoriasis care visits, delaying a timely diagnosis by years, and potentially resulting in irreversible joint damage. Psoriasis (and subsequent PsA) is also under-diagnosed among African Americans and other individuals with skin of color due to differences in clinical presentation.
SWHR hosted a series of webinars to share educational information about the impact of psoriatic arthritis on women’s health. The events discussed how to improve health outcomes through recognizing and addressing symptoms, comorbidities, treatment options, and barriers to accessing quality care, while highlighting the diverse experiences of women across the lifespan.
The SWHR Psoriatic Arthritis series includes:
- Psoriatic Arthritis: More than Just Sore Joints (October 17, 2022)
- Psoriatic Arthritis: A Woman’s Toolkit to Soar Above the Pain (November 16, 2022)
Follow the conversation on Twitter at @SWHR and #SWHRtalksSkin and #SWHRtalksAutoimmune.
This event is free and open to the public.
Goals
- Introduce autoimmune diseases and psoriatic arthritis, and their impacts on women
- Provide a holistic overview of treatment options for patients (including lifestyle and CAM approaches) and key considerations for chronic disease management
- Highlight information and wellness strategies from SWHR’s psoriatic arthritis toolkit
- Emphasize opportunities for women to improve their quality of care and overall health throughout the lifespan
Panelists

Stacie Bell, PhD
Stacie Bell, PhD
Stacie is a dynamic leader and researcher with 25+ years of diverse experience in biotechnology, academic, nonprofit and pharma in discovery research, drug and device development, scientific strategy, education and patient centricity with a cross functional focus on clinical development and medical affairs. She has been involved with all phases and functional lines of the pre-clinical research and clinical development process in several therapeutic areas, including infectious diseases, immunology, rheumatology, dermatology, and has worked extensively with the FDA, NIH and NHC. She served as the lead of a COVID-19 task force during the pandemic. Stacie has served in several leadership roles including Chief Scientific & Medical Officer for the National Psoriasis Foundation, on numerous boards and committees and has been the therapeutic area representative and program lead for her organizations. She has also consulted for late-stage discovery and clinical development programs in a variety of settings. Stacie received her doctorate in biochemistry from Vanderbilt University and has secondary training in Clinical Pharmacology and Research. Throughout her career she has been dedicated to optimizing treatment options for unmet needs, promoting education, improving access to care, fostering partnership to progress programs and taking innovative approaches for program strategy.

Alexa Meara, MD
Alexa Meara, MD
Alexa Meara, MD, is a 2008 graduate of the Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC. In 2011 she completed her internal medicine training at East Carolina University (ECU) at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, North Carolina, then spent two more years at ECU, first as chief resident in internal medicine, then as the associate training program director for internal medicine. She pursued further training in rheumatology at the Ohio State University in Columbus, completing a four-year clinical and research fellowship there in 2015. Dr. Meara is currently an assistant professor of immunology and rheumatology at OSU. She maintains a multidisciplinary vasculitis clinic and supervises a longitudinal registry of lupus nephritis and vasculitis patients. Her clinical research is in improving patient–physician communication. She is involved in the medical school and the Lead-Serve-Inspire (LSI) curriculum and serves on the medical school admissions committee; she also teaches multiple aspects of the Part One curriculum. Her interests in medical-education research include remediation and work with struggling learners.

Martina Jeanette Lee Porter, MD
Martina Jeanette Lee Porter, MD
An Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Porter’s areas of research include psoriasis, hidradenitis suppurativa, atopic dermatitis, quality improvement, and women’s health. Her career focus is in clinical trials, biologic agents, and the development and validation of clinical scoring systems. Dr. Porter has published multiple peer-reviewed papers and is the Co-Director of the Clinical Laboratory for Epidemiology and Applied Research in Skin (CLEARS) as well as the Associate Director of Research in the Department of Dermatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA. Dr. Porter is recognized for her research and was awarded the Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation’s Danby research grant for her hypertonic saline sclerotherapy study as well as the American Academy of Dermatology’s Quality Improvement Award for her work with Prior Authorizations.
Sponsor
SWHR’s Psoriatic Arthritis Program is supported by an educational sponsorship from Eli Lilly & Company. SWHR maintains editorial control and independence over educational content.