May is Lupus Awareness Month

Ajouté : 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]It's a disease that's very hard to diagnose and disproportionately affects women and people of color. Lupus is three times more likely to affect black and Native American patients. Joining me now is Dr. Michelle Bayard, a rheumatologist with Mount Sinai Queens, who's working to help close that gap.

[00:00:16]Doc, thank you for taking a few moments for us. So, what makes lupus so hard to diagnose and what should people know about the symptoms?

[00:00:24]Hi, thank you for having me. You know, the thing about lupus is that some of the most common symptoms are actually symptoms that many people have. So, it can be hard to distinguish when someone takes that next step and says, "I'm going to go see a rheumatologist." You know, those symptoms can include joint pain, skin rash, fatigue. Those are symptoms many people have. But, in lupus these symptoms don't get better on their own. It's joint pain that won't go away, skin rash that is coming back and back and recurrent. And it's fatigue that's more than your common New Yorker, "I'm tired" fatigue, but really I can't get out of bed in the morning and I've had a full night's of sleep.

[00:01:04]>> So, it's one of those things if you're experiencing any of that, you would recommend go see your doctor immediately.

[00:01:10]Yeah, I think that it's important to ask your primary care provider, "Is this normal or are these symptoms, you know, more active and should I think about seeing a rheumatologist?" Let me ask you, what kind of gaps in support prevent people from getting a diagnosis or seeking treatment for something like this? And what is your group doing to try to level the playing field?

[00:01:30]Thank you for asking that. So, I founded a Lupus Health Equity Board that's supported by the United Hospital Fund and we are trying to better understand exactly that. Are people having trouble finding a rheumatologist? Are they having trouble finding support groups?

[00:01:45]How do they get to their appointments?

[00:01:47]So, we have a survey that's really trying to understand what are those gaps and what are the needs of people and how can we better support people to live their best lives with lupus and support their families as well. So, you're doing a lot of work in the Queens community.

[00:02:02]Can you tell us about the fellowship there and the kind of impact that you're seeing and the response that you've been getting from the community?

[00:02:08]Yeah, so people are really excited to talk about lupus. People I have patient advocates on our board sharing their stories and we're getting great feedback because people are saying, "I didn't know what that was. You know, this is something I want to talk about with my friends and my family to make sure that people are getting tested for this." And I think that we're really getting out there the idea of how important it is to be diagnosed and diagnosed early because these symptoms can lead to more damaging symptoms down the line.

[00:02:40]>> Well, you're doing great work, Doc. We appreciate it and thank you for being with us this morning.

[00:02:44]Thank you. I just want to shout out our Instagram Um, so if you do have lupus and live in Queens, please check out our survey.

[00:02:54]All right. Sounds great. Thank you very much once again.