Dr Mease received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University. He completed residency in internal medicine and fellowship in rheumatology at the University of Washington. He cares for patients and directs the rheumatology research division at Swedish Medical Center and is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Dr Mease’s research interests have included psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), fibromyalgia (FM,) and osteoporosis. His work includes research on disease state, development of outcome measures, and determining the efficacy and safety of emerging therapies for these conditions. His seminal 2000 Lancet paper established the efficacy of anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy in PsA. He has authored over 350 journal articles, numerous abstracts, and book chapters. He is a prolific international speaker at academic congresses, grand rounds and other educational activities for rheumatologists and dermatologists and is considered an international key opinion leader, researcher, educator and clinician regarding SpA, including ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and non-radiographic spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA) and psoriatic arthritis. He is a reviewer for Arthritis & Rheumatology, Arthritis Care & Research, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, The Journal of Rheumatology, Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, and other rheumatology journals.
Dr Mease is Past-President and founding organizer of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA), an international organization of over 800 rheumatology and dermatology researchers dedicated to research and education about psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. He is a member of the Assessment of Spondyloarthritis international Society (ASAS) and the Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN). He is on the Education Committee of SPARTAN. He has served in an educational and advisory role for the FDA regarding SpA, including AS and nr-axSpA. Dr Mease has been active in the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials (OMERACT) research organization as co-chair of the PsA and chronic pain working groups and serves on the steering committee. He is an active mentor of young investigators in these organizations. He serves on the steering committee of the arthritis section of the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM). He conducts disease state research in registries such as the Consortium of Rheumatology Researchers of North America (CORRONA) for which he is Director of the Spondyloarthritis and Psoriatic Arthritis arm of the registry. He is a member of The Rheumatology Education Group (TREG). Dr Mease is a recipient of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Medical Communicator Award. He teaches about PsA at Meet the Professor sessions and is a prominent research and education presenter at ACR meetings. He is a co-chair of the ACR abstract review committee section on Spondyloarthritis and Psoriatic Arthritis. He is currently serving on the Voting Committee for the ACR-NPF (National Psoriasis Foundation) Psoriatic Arthritis treatment guidelines task force. He has been on the faculty for the ACR SOTA and Winter meetings. Dr Mease has served several terms on the board of the Northwest chapter of the Arthritis Foundation. He is this year’s organizer for the Northwest Rheumatism Society meeting. Dr Mease has served on the NPF medical advisory board and co-chairs its PsA task force.