Maybe It’s NOT Mechanical Back Pain: Get on the Fast Track to Identifying AxSpA

Faculty

Marina Magrey, MD

Division Chief, Rheumatology

University Hospitals (UH) Cleveland Medical Center

Professor

Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine

Cleveland, Ohio

Dr. Marina Magrey is Division Chief of Rheumatology at UH Cleveland Medical Center and a Professor at CWRU School of Medicine. After she received her medical degree from the University of Kashmir, India, Dr. Magrey completed an internal medicine residency and fellowship in rheumatology at the Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Magrey’s scholarship focuses on the management of AxSpA, psoriatic arthritis, and metabolic bone disease to improve outcomes in patients. Driven by her passion for providing high-quality, evidence-based care with cost containment, she developed a disease-specific clinic for spondyloarthritis in a prior role at The MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio.

Nationally, Dr. Magrey is considered a thought leader in spondyloarthritis. She serves on the Board of Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN). Dr. Magrey is an invited member of both the Assessment in Spondyloarthritis International Society (ASAS) and the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA), which are study groups comprised of international experts in spondyloarthritis. Dr. Magrey is co-chair of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) subcommittee for abstracts in AxSpA, also serving on the ACR guideline subcommittee to develop guidelines for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis and glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis.

Dr. Magrey is involved in clinical and translational research for biomarkers in spondyloarthritis and participates in clinical trials for spondyloarthritis treatment. She has served as principal investigator of multiple National Institutes of Health grants and international collaborative projects and has 44 publications in various peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Magrey serves as a consultant in spondyloarthritis clinical research to the pharmaceutical industry. She is also a consultant for the rational design of randomized controlled spondyloarthritis treatment trials, analysis of the results of such trials and the presentation of novel products for approval to the US Food and Drug Administration.

Additionally, Dr. Magrey enjoys teaching. She served as the rheumatology fellowship training director at MetroHealth Medical Center. Presently, she serves on the education committee of SPARTAN and on the steering committee of the Medscape spondyloarthritis section. She is also a board member of the Cleveland Society of Rheumatology.

Dr. Magrey has earned several honors and is consistently rated as one of the best rheumatologists in the country. Along with being a respected clinician and researcher, Dr. Magrey strongly believes in giving back to her community. She started the Salam Free Clinic, the first free clinic of its kind in the historically disadvantaged Hough neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Beyond her work, Marina loves her family, especially her two sons. In her free time, she likes to go on walks, follow the news, and watch the latest shows on Netflix.

Shireesh Bhalerao, MCR, DC

Chiropractic Physician & Owner

Equilibrium, LLC

Associate Professor and Chair

Department of Chiropractic Sciences

University of Western States (UWS)

Founder, Tulip Seminars

Portland, Oregon

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Department of Physical Therapy

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Dr. Shireesh Bhalerao was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and graduated from Western States Chiropractic College (now UWS) in Portland, Oregon, in 2000. In 2013, Dr. Bhalerao was awarded a master’s in clinical research at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland.

While opening and maintaining Equilibrium, LLC with his wife, Dr. Bhalerao became an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Chiropractic Sciences at UWS. His teaching expertise is in the realms of spinal and extraspinal diagnosis and management and evidence-based practice (EBP). He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is also currently co-authoring a new edition of the textbook Chiropractic Technique: Principles and Procedures with Dr. Stephen Perle. 

Dr. Bhalerao is passionate about further integrating the chiropractic field with mainstream medicine