Residents and Fellows

Location

Cape Town, South Africa

Red Cross Children’s Hospital

Laura Lewandowski, MD, MSc-GH

Global Health Pathway Graduate
Fogarty International Clinical Research Fellowship Alumni

laura.lewandowski@nih.gov

Pediatric Rheumatology
Department of Pediatrics
2012

Summary

Dr. Lewandowski completed the Global Health and Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship in 2015.  She also completed a Master of Science in Global Health at Duke. Prior to joining Duke, Dr. Lewandowski completed her Pediatric Residency at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and earned her MD from Penn State. For her work exploring the burden of pediatric systemic lupus erythematosus in South Africa she received a Lupus Foundation of America Career Development Award as well as a Fogarty Global Health Fellowship.

Building on the knowledge that African Americans are often afflicted with severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Dr. Lewandowski began investigating pediatric SLE in Africa. As a result, Dr. Lewandowski found that pediatric SLE patients in Africa are younger and present with severe SLE. Through establishing this cohort, she explored the role of race in SLE severity and studied how SLE can alter risk for HIV. Through her commitment to improving lives for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, and dedication to understanding more about the role of race in disease severity through global collaborations, Dr. Lewandowski pursued a career in clinical research which led to better understanding of this debilitating disease and interventions which will impact SLE patients worldwide. She is currently an Assistant Clinical Investigator and Head of the Lupus Genetics and Global Health Disparities Unit at the NIH.

GHP Project Related Publications

  • Lewandowski, L.B., L.E. Schanberg, N. Thielman, A. Phuti, A.A. Kalla, I. Okpechi, P. Nourse, P. Gajjar, G. Faller, P. Ambaram, H. Reuter, G. Spittal, and C. Scott, Severe disease presentation and poor outcomes among pediatric systemic lupus erythematosus patients in South Africa. Lupus, 2017. 26(2): p. 186-194.
  • Lewandowski, L.B., M.H. Watt, L.E. Schanberg, N.M. Thielman, and C. Scott, Missed opportunities for timely diagnosis of pediatric lupus in South Africa: a qualitative study. Pediatr Rheumatol Online J, 2017. 15(1): p. 14.
  • Smith, E.M.D., L.B. Lewandowski, A.L. Jorgensen, A. Phuti, P. Nourse, C. Scott, and M.W. Beresford, Growing international evidence for urinary biomarker panels identifying lupus nephritis in children – verification within the South African Paediatric Lupus Cohort. Lupus, 2018. 27(14): p. 2190-2199.
  • Lewandowski, L.B., Tackling global challenges in pediatric rheumatology. Curr Opin Rheumatol, 2020.
  • Lewandowski, L.B. and E. Hsieh, Global rheumatology in the time of COVID-19. Lancet Rheumatol, 2020. 2(5): p. e254-e255.
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