Dr. Lesley A. Saketkoo

Medical Advisor

Dr. Lesley A Saketkoo, MD, MPH, is a researcher, educator and clinician in scleroderma/systemic sclerosis, sarcoidosis, myositis, pulmonary hypertension and interstitial lung disease. In 2011, she established the Scleroderma and Sarcoidosis Patient Care and Research Center between Tulane and Louisiana State University, “center of excellence” by the European Scleroderma Trials and Research Group (EUSTAR), the Scleroderma Foundation, and the Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium (SCTC).; and also established the Pulmonary Hypertension clinic program at LSU, which is now the LSU-Tulane collaborative Comprehensive Pulmonary Hypertension Center (CPHC) at University Medical Center, a Pulmonary Hypertension Association certified center of excellence.

In addition to clinical trials and registries in rare multi-organ system diseases, Dr. Saketkoo is dedicated to research that illuminates patient priorities and incorporates patients' expertise in clinical trial design, learning about the disease, along with how manifestations of the disease begin and evolve over time. Dr. Saketkoo has been dedicated to wellness education that empowers patients living with chronic illness for biological and psychosocial wellness. She is a founder of G-FoRSS, the Global Fellowship on Rehabilitation and Exercise in Systemic Sclerosis, which is group of PTs, OTs, physicians, and basic scientists dedicated to defining exercise and physical activity's medicinal impact on systemic inflammation, fibrosis, functional ability and psychosocial ease in SSc. Dr. Saketkoo was named Doctor of the Year in 2018 by the Scleroderma Foundation.