Bonnie L. Bermas, M.D.
Professor of Internal Medicine
Dr. Morris Ziff Distinguished Professorship in Rheumatology
Division of Rheumatic Diseases

I was drawn to rheumatology as a subspecialty because I was intrigued with how our immune system, designed to protect us from foreign antigens, could also cause autoimmune disease. As I started rheumatology training, I became fascinated by the intersection of rheumatologic disorders with other medical circumstances in which the immune system was altered. Along those lines, I have spent much of my career trying to understand the impact of pregnancy on rheumatic conditions and the special considerations for disease management during gestation. As cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors started to present with rheumatologic immune related adverse events (irAEs), I realized that here was another opportunity to try to understand how a changing immune system, in this case the direct result of immune checkpoint inhibitors, could create and impact rheumatologic disorders. Similar to my experience in treating pregnant patients with rheumatic disease, relying on a multi-disciplinary team and a flexible approach is essential in managing patients who develop rheumatologic immune related adverse events with immune checkpoint therapy.