Fall 2023 (Volume 33, Number 3)
Rising Star:
Dr. Sabrina Hoa
Download PDF
To the CRAJ readership,
I am very honoured to have received
this invitation to write about
my research, accomplishments and
career trajectory as a rheumatologist.
After completing my MD and
internal medicine residency at
McGill University, I pursued my
rheumatology training at Université
de Montréal, my post-doctoral
fellowship in scleroderma at the
Jewish General Hospital/Lady Davis
Institute for Medical Research,
and a Masters in Epidemiology at
McGill University under the supervision
of Marie Hudson, MD, MPH
and Sasha Bernatsky, MD, PhD.
The topic of my thesis was the role
of immunosuppressive drugs in
the prevention and early treatment
of scleroderma-associated interstitial
lung disease (SSc-ILD). Using
data from the Canadian Scleroderma
Research Group (CSRG)
cohort, I showed that patients with mild SSc-ILD who were
treated with mycophenolate or cyclophosphamide had better
lung function and a lower risk of clinically meaningful
progression in lung disease over two years, suggesting that
a window of treatment opportunity may exist to preserve
lung function in SSc-ILD. This research was selected by The
Arthritis Society as part of the Top 10 Research Advances
of 2019.
I began my faculty appointment as an Assistant Professor
with the Faculty of Medicine at Université de Montréal in 2019.
I am working as a rheumatologist and clinician-scientist at
the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) and
the CHUM Research Centre. As a clinician, I participate actively
in the specialized connective tissue disease and ILD
clinics at the CHUM. I have established a scleroderma clinic
to further optimize patient experience, teaching, and research
activities. As a researcher, I am supported by a Fonds
de Recherche du Québec — Santé Junior 1 Clinician Research
Scholar award since 2022. My research program focuses on
early risk stratification and treatment strategies in mild SSc-
ILD. I recently received a Canadian Institute of Health Research
(CIHR) Project Grant to conduct a pilot randomized
controlled trial comparing mycophenolate mofetil to placebo
in subclinical SSc-ILD. I have
recently been appointed as chairholder
of the Université de Montréal
Scleroderma Research Chair,
following in the great footsteps of
Jean-Luc Senécal, MD, who held
the Chair for the past 20 years.
I am privileged to be a member
of several research networks, including
the CSRG, the Scleroderma
Patient-centered Intervention
Network (SPIN), the Canadian
Research Group of Rheumatology
in Immuno-Oncology (Can-RIO), and Arthritis Research
Canada. I am also very grateful
to be surrounded by wonderful
and supportive colleagues — clinicians,
researchers, mentors,
students and residents — as well
as very smart patients, who motivate
and inspire me in my work
as a scleroderma researcher. I also
wish to acknowledge the strong
and ongoing support of Sclérodermie
Québec since my Fellowship. I am particularly
indebted to my mentors, Dr. Marie Hudson and
Dr. Jean-Luc Senécal, who have supported, guided and
inspired me throughout my career journey in rheumatology.
Finally, all would not have been possible without the
unwavering support of my family. As a mother of three
young children, I wish to encourage everyone, particularly
rheumatology residents and fellows, not to be afraid to pursue
their research interests!
Sabrina Hoa, MD, MSc, FRCPC
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine,
Université de Montréal
Rheumatologist, Department of Medicine, CHUM
Clinician Scientist, CHUM Research Centre
Montreal, Quebec
|
