Ankylosing Spondylitis - All Articles

Atul Khasnis, MD, is a board-certified rheumatologist and lifestyle medicine specialist. He is the director of the Georgia Rheumatology Clinic in Tyrone. As a practicing rheumatologist, he cares for adults with systemic autoimmune diseases (such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, vasculitis, and myositis) and various kinds of arthritis.

After completing medical school and residency in India and coming to the United States, he did an additional residency in internal medicine at Michigan State University and a rheumatology fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. He also completed a fellowship in vasculitis (offered by the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium), a master's in clinical research at Case Western Reserve University, and a two-year research fellowship in cardiac electrophysiology. 

Dr. Khasnis has written and coauthored several book chapters, journal articles, and abstracts, and participated as a faculty-presenter in continuing medical education activities. He is the membership chair for the Georgia Society of Rheumatology.

Khasnis loves reading and travel, and has a passion for photography.

Beth Biggee, MD, is medical director and an integrative rheumatologist at Rheumission, a virtual integrative rheumatology practice for people residing in California and Pennsylvania. This first-of-its-kind company offers whole person autoimmune care by a team of integrative rheumatologists, lifestyle medicine practitioners, autoimmune dietitians, psychologists, and care coordinators.

Dr. Biggee also works as a healthcare wellness consultant for Synergy Wellness Center in Hudson, Massachusetts. Teamed with Synergy, she provides in-person lifestyle medicine and holistic consults, and contributes to employee workplace wellness programs. She has over 20 years of experience in rheumatology and holds board certifications in rheumatology and integrative and lifestyle medicine. Dr. Biggee brings a human-centered approach to wellness rather than focusing solely on diseases.

Dr. Biggee graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree from Canisius College, and graduated magna cum laude and as valedictorian from SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse Medical School. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital, completed her fellowship in rheumatology at Tufts–New England Medical Center, and completed training in integrative rheumatology at the University of Arizona Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine. Following her training, she attained board certification in rheumatology and internal medicine through the American Board of Internal Medicine, attained board certification in integrative medicine through the American Board of Physician Specialties, and attained accreditation as a certified lifestyle medicine physician through the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. She is certified in Helms auricular acupuncture and is currently completing coursework for the Aloha Ayurveda integrative medicine course for physicians.

In prior roles, Dr. Biggee taught as an assistant clinical professor of medicine at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital (an affiliate of Columbia University). She was also clinical associate of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and instructed "introduction to clinical medicine" for medical students at Tufts. She was preceptor for the Lawrence General Hospital Family Medicine Residency.

Dr. Biggee has published in Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, Arthritis in Rheumatism, Current Opinions in Rheumatology, Journal for Musculoskeletal Medicine, Medicine and Health Rhode Island, and Field Guide to Internal Medicine.

David Alboukrek, MD, is board-certified in internal medicine and rheumatology. He is an affiliate clinical professor at Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, where he has been a preceptor for first and second year medical students, and participates in clinical activities such as elective rotations with the third and fourth year medical students and second and third year internal medicine residents. He is currently chairperson of the Medical Staff Excellence Committee (peer review) at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, where he previously served as chief of medicine from 2011 to 2013. He maintains privileges at Boca Raton Regional Hospital and Delray Medical Center.

Dr. Alboukrek was born in Mexico City and grew up in Guatemala, where he attended medical school. He went on to complete a family medicine residency program in Guatemala City before moving to the United States. He did a one-year fellowship in child psychiatry at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, followed by a residency in internal medicine at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He then completed a fellowship in rheumatology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas. Before moving to Boca Raton in 1995, he was in practice with Berkshire Orthopedic Associates in Massachusetts.

Alboukrek has been a member of multiple medical societies in the USA and abroad. He is a fellow of the American College of Rheumatology. He is a member of the Florida Medical Association, Florida Society of Rheumatology, and the Palm Beach County Medical Society. He has had active roles in the Osteoporosis Diagnostic and Treatment Center of South Florida and the RASF–Clinical Research Center, and has provided care to indigent patients at the Whelton Virshup Creaky Joints Arthritis Clinic for many years.

When not at work he is most likely playing pickleball or ping pong somewhere.

Edmund Tsui, MD, is an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

He earned his medical degree from Dartmouth. He completed an ophthalmology residency at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, where he was chief resident, followed by a fellowship in uveitis and ocular inflammatory disease at the Francis I. Proctor Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology at the University of California in San Francisco.

Along with his clinical and research responsibilities, Tsui teaches medical students and residents. He is on the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology's professional development and education committee, as well as the advocacy and outreach committee, which seeks to increase funding and awareness of vision research. He also serves on the editorial board of Ophthalmology and the executive committee of the American Uveitis Society.

Abhinav Singh, MD, is a board-certified sleep medicine specialist and the medical director of the Indiana Sleep Center. He is also an associate clinical professor at Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Indianapolis, where he developed and teaches a sleep medicine rotation.

Dr. Singh’s research and clinical practice focus on sleep disorders, including excessive daytime sleepiness, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, insomnia, and sleep education.

Singh is a peer reviewer for the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, Sleep Health (from the National Sleep Foundation) and the Journal of Sleep Disorders: Treatment and Care, and is coauthor of the book Sleep to Heal: 7 Simple Steps to Better Sleep. He has received several Top Doctor recognitions and is the sleep specialist for the Indiana Pacers NBA team.

He lives in the Indianapolis area and enjoys music production and racquet sports.

Alexa Meara, MD, is an assistant professor of immunology and rheumatology at The Ohio State University. She maintains a multidisciplinary vasculitis clinic and supervises a longitudinal registry of lupus nephritis and vasculitis patients. Her clinical research is in improving patient–physician communication. She is involved in the medical school and the Lead-Serve-Inspire (LSI) curriculum and serves on the medical school admissions committee; she also teaches multiple aspects of the Part One curriculum. Her interests in medical-education research include remediation and work with struggling learners.

Dr. Meara received her medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC.  She completed her internal medicine training at East Carolina University (ECU) at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, North Carolina, then spent two more years at ECU, first as chief resident in internal medicine, then as the associate training program director for internal medicine. She pursued further training in rheumatology at The Ohio State University in Columbus, completing a four-year clinical and research fellowship there in 2015. 

Samir Dalvi, MD, is a board-certified rheumatologist. He has over 14 years of experience in caring for patients with rheumatologic diseases, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, lupus, and gout.