Daniel Glaser, MD, MPH, is a pediatric rheumatologist who specializes in autoimmune conditions, including craniofacial scleroderma(also known as Parry-Romberg syndrome).
Growing up, Dr. Glaser accompanied his sister, who has juvenile arthritis, to many rheumatology appointments.
“That piqued my interest in the field, but I didn’t realize I wanted to focus on pediatrics until I met a mentor while doing rotations in medical school,” he says. “He was confident and relaxed with his patients and it felt like he was a part of their lives as they were growing up. It wasn’t this faceless medical experience at a random clinic. He was passionate about taking care of them.”
Dr. Glaser says he gravitated to rheumatology because of its many unknowns. “So much of rheumatology is this black box. And in that black box is a tiny dark corner with craniofacial scleroderma that has so many fascinating features and so much more we don’t understand,” he says.
Scleroderma is a chronic condition that involves the hardening and tightening of the skin and connective tissues. It presents quite differently in children, Dr. Glaser adds.
“In adults, you have systemic scleroderma in which organs are involved as well as skin changes. But in kids, it’s mostly localized and a subset of those involve just the head and neck,” he says, of craniofacial scleroderma. “And it’s not just the skin and bones and muscles, but the eyes and the brain and the blood vessels. This form is very rare and can take a long time to diagnose. There’s also no consensus on treatment.”
However, there are promising advances on the horizon, including the use of non-invasive 3D imaging to create models of patients’ heads to see how the disease changes over time, as well as to improve diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment. This, along with understanding the genetic underpinnings of craniofacial scleroderma, are research interests for Dr. Glaser.
But the best part of his job, Dr. Glaser says, is building relationships with patients and watching them get better. “The Arthritis Foundation runs camps for kids and if you look at pictures from the ‘70s and ‘80s, most of the kids are in wheelchairs. But if you look at pictures today, you can’t tell there is any disease,” he says. “We have such powerful medicines and diagnostics today to help kids with rheumatic disease live normal lives.”
