Lihi Eder

Administrative Assistant: fahmeen.afgani@wchospital.ca

Research Synopsis

Affecting up to three per cent of the population, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis are skin and joint diseases with significant impact on quality of life and long-term morbidity and mortality. Patients with psoriatic disease encounter substantial barriers in managing their condition, which often presents with several other medical issues at the same time. With the goal of early detection and delivery of care for these patients to improve health outcomes, Dr. Lihi Eder is focused on developing novel tools and models for care for patients with psoriatic arthritis. As Canada Research Chair in Inflammatory Rheumatic Diseases Dr. Eder is particularly interested in understanding and addressing barriers for equitable care in rheumatology.

As a rheumatologist, Dr. Eder treats patients with complex conditions which can make it much more challenging to investigate and develop solutions. One of the major challenges that psoriasis patients encounter is the delayed diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis. Access to care can be influenced by factors such as sex/gender, age and socio-economic factors. Dr. Eder’s research focuses on identifying novel methods, such as imaging modalities, and laboratory biomarkers to improve early detection of the disease and provide equitable care to all patients. With early detection, patients benefit from receiving earlier treatment and possibly even future prevention of the disease.

Another area of focus for Dr. Eder is cardiovascular diseases in patients with rheumatic conditions. She co-founded Canada’s first combined cardio-rheumatology clinic to investigate the underlying mechanisms associated with the higher cardiovascular morbidity in rheumatic patients. Working with colleagues in cardiology, she is studying the impact of inflammation on heart health and the use of different approaches to suppress inflammation to improve cardiovascular outcomes. Dr. Eder hopes that these findings will help close some of the health gaps for rheumatic patients, as well as increase awareness among physicians and other healthcare providers.

Another major focus for Dr. Eder’s research is understanding how age, sex/gender and ethnicity plays a role in disease outcomes for patients with PsA. By having a better understanding of how these biological and sociocultural factors affect an individual’s response to various treatment modalities, and disease progression, we can pave the way to discovering innovative and efficient ways to facilitate early diagnosis and thus early intervention to prevent disease complications.