Maria Dall’Era, M.D. is professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology. Within rheumatology, her subspecialty is systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and lupus nephritis. Dr. Dall’Era is the director of the UCSF Lupus Clinic in which she cares for > 200 patients with SLE. She is also the director of the Rheumatology Clinical Research Center in which she oversees the conduct of various clinical trials and observational research studies. Her research program is focused on three major areas: (1) the design and conduct of clinical trials of novel biologic agents for SLE and lupus nephritis, (2) a population-based SLE longitudinal cohort funded by the Centers of Disease Control and (3) a project in conjunction with the Lupus Nephritis Trials Network to determine the most appropriate renal outcome measures that should be utilized in lupus nephritis clinical trials.
She is the co-chair of the Steering Committee for the Lupus Clinical Investigators Network (LuCIN).

Dr. Dall’Era plays a large role in the education of trainees, both in the outpatient clinical arena, inpatient setting, and in the medical school. With a grant from the American College of Rheumatology’s Lupus Initiative, she created two pilot, interactive, on-line, virtual simulation SLE cases in collaboration with Dr. Michelle Lin. She incorporated novel features into the cases including a “differential diagnosis slider” in which the learner is required to re-adjust their differential diagnosis after case content is revealed. With a clinician scholar award grant from the American College of Rheumatology, she developed an interactive mobile app called PIVOT to teach clinical reasoning in rheumatology.

Dr. Dall’Era is also active in the education of practicing physicians and lectures frequently on the topic of lupus at national conferences and review courses.