Anca Askanase, MD
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Overview
Dr. Anca Dinu Askanase recently joined the CUMC Rheumatology faculty where she is the founder and clinical director of Columbia's new Lupus Center and the Director of Rheumatology Clinical Trials. Dr. Askanase is an internationally renowned clinician, diagnostician and researcher with more than 15 years specializing in complex Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Dr. Askanase trained as a rheumatologist at New York University where she remained for more than 15 years on faculty, directing clinical trials, training fellows and residents, and treating challenging cases of SLE at NYU's prestigious Hospitals.
Dr. Askanase's academic career has focused primarily on the care of patients with SLE and other autoimmune diseases.In order to provide better care for patients suffering from these devastating diseases, she embarked on a journey of research and discovery, with the goal of understanding disease outcomes from both the patients' and physicians' perspective while helping to redefine 21st century therapeutic options. It is Dr. Askanase's hope that by helping to establish widely accepted parameters for quantifying the impact of the disease and the response to medications, all doctors will have effective benchmarks and therapeutic options to better treat patients with SLE's often confounding symptoms.
In addition to numerous publications and benchmark clinical trials, Dr. Askanase is a member of the two major international consortia aimed at providing the collaboration between lupus doctors needing to improve outcomes and therapies in Lupus: the SLICC (SLE international Collaborating Clinics) and the LNTN (Lupus Nephritis Trial Network).Dr. Askanase believes that excellent care often involves bringing novel therapies to her patients with Lupus and other autoimmune diseases; thus, she has been involved in every major SLE clinical drug trial and multiple NIH and industry sponsored clinical trials. One of her most rewarding experiences was her involvement as the Site Principal Investigator in the registrational study that led to the FDA approval of Belimumab, the first new Lupus drug in over 50 years. Dr. Askanase also designed and executed the only study looking at a rational approach (based on pharmacogenetics and metabolite measurement) to use Azathioprine in the treatment of Lupus. She is currently evaluating the use of ACTH as a steroid alternative in lupus nephritis. Dr. Askanase is also a proud Columbia Alumnus and still lives in Morningside Heights with her husband and two children.
Areas of Expertise / Conditions Treated
- Arthritis, Rheumatoid
- Lupus
- Rheumatic Disease
- Sjogren's Syndrome
- Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
- Vasculitis
Academic Appointments
- Professor of Medicine at CUMC
Hospital Affiliations
- NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Languages
- French
- Romanian
- Spanish
Gender
- Female
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Phone Appointments
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Location(s)
Insurance Accepted
Aetna
- Aetna Signature Administrators
- EPO
- HMO
- Medicare Managed Care
- NY Signature
- POS
- PPO
- Student Health
Cigna
- EPO
- Great West (National)
- HMO
- Medicare Managed Care
- POS
- PPO
Emblem/GHI
- Medicare Managed Care
- PPO
Emblem/HIP
- ConnectiCare
- EPO
- Essential Plan
- HMO
- Medicaid Managed Care
- Medicare Managed Care
- POS
- PPO
- Select Care (Exchange)
- Vytra
Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield
- EPO
- HMO
- Medicare Managed Care
- PPO
Fidelis Care
- Essential Plan
Local 1199
- Local 1199
- NYP Employee Plan
MagnaCare (National)
- MagnaCare
Medicare
- Railroad
- Traditional Medicare
Multiplan
- Multiplan
UnitedHealthcare
- Compass (Exchange)
- Empire Plan
- HMO
- Medicare Managed Care
- Oxford Freedom
- Oxford HMO
- Oxford Liberty
- POS
- PPO
WellCare
- Medicare Managed Care
World Trade Center Health Plan
- World Trade Center Health Plan
Credentials & Experience
Education & Training
- MPH, Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
- MD, 1989 Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy-Carol Davilla (Romania)
- 1989 Instit De Medicina Si Farmacie Carol Davila
- 2003 Columbia University School of Public Health
- Internship: St. Lukes Roosevelt Hospital Center
- Residency: St. Lukes Roosevelt Hospital Center
- Fellowship: Hospital for Joint Diseases
Board Certifications
- Rheumatology
Research
As a lupus physician and investigator previously at New York University School of Medicine/NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, Dr. Askanase gained extensive experience with SLE patients, established a lupus cohort and participated in multiple lupus clinical trials. At Columbia, she founded and currently directs the Columbia University Lupus Center and serves as the Director of Rheumatology Clinical Trials. Dr. Askanase has identified all of the patients followed at the Columbia University Medical Center and established a new cohort of SLE patients that includes a large number of Hispanic patients of Dominican origin and allows for multiple observational studies addressing SLE activity and damage. Lupus patients move seamlessly from clinical care into NIH, investigator initiated and industry sponsored therapeutic SLE clinical trials that ensure access to promising new medications and excellent care. Dr. Askanase's experience at NYU and Columbia has highlighted the heterogeneity and complexity of SLE and the need for comprehensive care for lupus patients as well as simple and efficient SLE disease activity measures. Her group is in the process of establishing a patient-centered medical home system for the care of lupus patients that provides easy around-the-clock access to a heath care provider for all lupus patients in the hope of decreasing emergency room visits and hospitalizations in high-risk lupus patients. In collaboration with the Lupus Foundation of America, they have developed a simple and easy-to-use outcome measure that includes both the physician and patient’s perspective. This outcome measure could inform the tailoring of medication regimens in clinical trials and in clinical care in order to achieve low disease activity and remission in SLE.
For a complete list of publications, please visit PubMed.gov