Philip J. Mease, MD

Philip J. Mease, MD, is director of rheumatology research at Providence Swedish Medical Center and a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, WA. His clinical practice is based at Seattle Rheumatology Associates, a Providence affiliate.

Dr Mease earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at Stanford University, and he completed his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in rheumatology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

He is a prolific international speaker at academic congresses, grand rounds, and virtual educational activities for rheumatologists, dermatologists, and gastroenterologists, and he is considered an international key opinion leader, researcher, educator, and clinician for spondyloarthritis (SpA), including psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and the complexities of pain in rheumatic disease.

His research interests include PsA, SpA, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and fibromyalgia, with a focus on disease state, developing outcome measures, and determining the efficacy and safety of emerging therapies for these conditions. Dr Mease’s seminal 2000 paper published in The Lancet established the efficacy of anti-TNF therapy in PsA. He currently leads studies on using cell therapy, such as CAR T-cell therapy, to achieve deep remission in lupus, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, and myositis.

Dr Mease conducts disease state research in registries such as the CorEvitas (formerly Corrona) US disease registry, for which he is director of the PsA-SpA arm. He also serves as a key consultant to the Institute for Systems Biology, a Providence affiliate, conducting artificial intelligence research studies in system-wide (Providence) autoimmune disease populations. He conducts translational research through the Institute for Systems Biology and the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) Collaborative Research Network.

He has authored more than 750 journal articles and several thousand abstracts, and he has served as an editor of and a chapter contributor in textbooks on PsA and axial SpA (AxSpA). Expertscape ranks Dr Mease as the most published expert in PsA and psoriasis worldwide and the 12th most published expert in AxSpA in the past decade. He is ranked in the top 40 most cited University of Washington faculty members. Additionally, he is a reviewer for multiple journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Arthritis & Rheumatology, Arthritis Care & Research, the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, The Journal of Rheumatology, and Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism.

Dr Mease is the recipient of the 2019 National Psoriasis Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in advancing the field of PsA. In 2022, he received the Legacy Award from the Arthritis Foundation. In 2023, he received the Society for Research in Rehabilitation Verna Wright Prize for his contribution to the field of psoriatic arthritis and the Rheumatology Winter Clinical Symposium Kahuna Award for excellence in education. Dr Mease was the Gilkey Visiting Professor at Mayo Clinic in 2022. In 2026, he was inducted as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He is also a master of the American College of Rheumatology and has received its Medical Communicator of the Year Award for teaching.

Dr Mease is past president and founding organizer of GRAPPA and is current treasurer and chair of the GRAPPA Education Committee. He is a member of the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society, a member of and on the Education Committee for the Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network, and past president of the Northwest Rheumatism Society. He has also been active in the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) research organization as cochair of the PsA; AxSpA; chronic nonbacterial osteitis/synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis; and chronic pain working groups and as a member of the OMERACT Steering Committee. Dr Mease has served in an educational and advisory role for the US Food and Drug Administration and is a member of the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement Steering Committee for the Arthritis Section.