Cory Perugino rheumatologist and IgG4-RD researcher at Mass General, explains that diagnosing IgG4-related disease requires strong collaboration, with team expertise playing a critical role in accuracy and speed.
Transcript
I would say the challenges that I face in diagnosing IgG4-related disease largely relate to the collaborators that I have. I’m blessed at my institution to work with radiologists, pathologists, gastroenterologists, and ophthalmologists who have a lot of familiarity and expertise in this disease.
So it’s a very rich environment that makes it a lot easier to diagnose the disease when you’re relying on other specialists who are providing a really high level of quality data. That helps go into your decision-making and understanding of the pattern you’re seeing as a rheumatologist.
I think one of the challenges, particularly in community practice, is that a physician may not necessarily have the same degree of a collaborative network to lean on or the same quality of data to make this diagnosis.
The main challenge is that it really requires a team effort to diagnose this disease. It relates to the quality of the team you’re working with — the respective experience and exposure that each individual team member has had to this disease.
