heads the list of speakers and presenters at LFNC's 2012 Spring Mini-Conference on April 28, at Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City. Lambert is Adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California. She works in a private rheumatology practice at Sports Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Medicine Associates in Redwood City. She is a Fellow of the American College of Rheumatology and a member of the Northern California Arthritis Foundation Board. She has authored a number of journal articles and book chapters and has lectured nationally on a variety of arthritis-related topics. She has won many awards in both teaching and patient care, including the highest honor awarded at Stanford Medical School's 1995 Graduation, the Rambar Award for Excellence in Patient Care. Lambert will talk about "Early-Adaptor Experiences in the Treatment of Lupus: Benlysta and Other Drugs in the Pipeline."

Other confirmed speakers include: 

Dana Hawkes, Clinical Nurse Educator for Human Genome Sciences, will answer questions on the new lupus drug Benlysta. 

Nicole Hemmenway, Vice President of the U.S. Pain Foundation and Director of the INvisible Project.  She will discuss the impact of Step Therapy/Fail First policies of Health Insurers on lupus patients and others living with chronic pain conditions.

A panel of lupus patients will share their stories of coping with their illness.

Click HERE for more information and to REGISTER. CEU credits available to RNs.

New Study Identifies  Genes That Predispose African Americans, European Americans and Asians to Lupus

Researchers have found genes that are associated with lupus in European-American, African-American, Gullah (a distinctive group of African-Americans in Georgia and South Carolina) and Asian patients.  

The researchers said their findings, which appear in the April 6 issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, show that the genes that cause lupus aren't always universal.