Prof. Philip J. Mease MD
About Philip Mease
Prof. Philip J. Mease is Director of Rheumatology Research at Swedish Medical Center/Providence St. Joseph Health and Clinical Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, Washington. His clinical practice is based at Seattle Rheumatology Associates, 601 Broadway, Seattle, WA 98122. He conducts clinical trials on emerging therapies for rheumatic diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and lupus, and also conducts research in disease state metrics and outcome measure development. He holds board certifications from the American Board of Internal Medicine in both Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. He serves as Director of the PsA-SpA arm of the CorEvitas (Corrona) registry, the Consortium of Rheumatology Researchers of North America. He is a Master of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and serves in an educational and advisory role for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and as a member of the steering committee of the arthritis section of the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM).
Prof. Mease’s primary research focus encompasses psoriatic arthritis (PsA), spondyloarthritis (SpA) including ankylosing spondylitis and non-radiographic axSpA, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, lupus, and osteoporosis. His methodological contributions span disease state research, outcome measure development, and the determination of efficacy and safety of emerging therapies across these conditions. His seminal 2000 Lancet paper established the efficacy of anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy in PsA. He is co-chair of three OMERACT working groups — on PsA, fibromyalgia, and single-joint assessment — and a member of the OMERACT Soluble Biomarker working group and steering committee.
His current research involves clinical trials of bimekizumab (including the BE MOBILE and BE OPTIMAL/BE COMPLETE programs), guselkumab (GALAXI), apremilast whole-body MRI studies in PsA, composite outcome measure development through GRAPPA-OMERACT collaboration, and real-world registry studies through CorEvitas. He has collaborated on AI studies in autoimmune diseases and is active in developing criteria for axial PsA (AXIS study) and consensus definitions for complex-to-manage and treatment-refractory PsA through GRAPPA.
Prof. Mease has extensive experience as a principal investigator and steering committee member across multiple Phase II, III, and IV clinical trials in rheumatology. Named trials from supplied sources include: BE OPTIMAL (NCT03895203) and BE COMPLETE (NCT03896581), Phase 3 studies of bimekizumab in PsA (bDMARD-naïve and TNFi-IR respectively), with open-label extension BE VITAL (NCT04009499); BE MOBILE 1 (NCT03928704, non-radiographic axSpA) and BE MOBILE 2 (NCT03928743, radiographic axSpA), with open-label extension BE MOVING (NCT04436640), studying bimekizumab in axial spondyloarthritis; the GALAXI-2 and GALAXI-3 Phase 3 trials of guselkumab in Crohn’s disease (Lancet 2025); a Phase 2a proof-of-concept study of guselkumab plus golimumab combination therapy in TNFi-IR PsA; and an apremilast whole-body MRI study in PsA (Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 2026, PMID: 42191498). He has also contributed to the TRACE treat-to-target secukinumab study in axSpA and has received research grants and consulting fees from AbbVie, Acelyrin, Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Inmagene, Janssen, Lilly, Moonlake, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB, as disclosed in supplied sources.
He has previously served as principal investigator in trials of etanercept, adalimumab, infliximab, certolizumab, golimumab, secukinumab, ixekizumab, apremilast, tofacitinib, upadacitinib, and milnacipran across PsA, AxSpA, RA, and FM indications.
Prof. Mease has authored over 660 journal articles. Expertscape ranks him as the most published worldwide expert in PsA and 12th most published in AxSpA in the past decade. He is a Master of the American College of Rheumatology and has received its Medical Communicator of the Year Award. He received a lifetime achievement award from the National Psoriasis Foundation in 2019 and a lifetime achievement award from the Arthritis Foundation. He has been continuously ranked among the Castle Connolly Top Doctors. He has delivered more than 350 invited lectures internationally. His work has appeared in The Lancet, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, Arthritis and Rheumatology, The Journal of Rheumatology, RMD Open, ACR Open Rheumatology, and Advances in Therapy, among others.
Prof. Mease received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University, graduating from Stanford Hospital and Clinics medical school in 1977. He completed his internship at the University of Washington School of Medicine in 1978, his residency in internal medicine in 1980 (serving as Chief Resident), and his fellowship in rheumatology in 1982, all at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He holds board certifications from the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine and in Rheumatology. He has been in his current positions as Director of Rheumatology Research at Swedish Medical Center and Clinical Professor at the University of Washington for over two decades.