The fourth and final round of RheumMadness 2025 (the Interleukin Two) is out! See how the Blue Ribbon Panel voted below, along with written explanations for how they made their picks. Please also keep reading to see a list of participant winners and our long list of thank you-s for another great year!
You can check on the final results of your bracket on the tourneytopia website.
Round 4: CD40L in Sjogren’s defeats Pred Dose in SLE (5-2).
The panel picked the novel CD40L inhibitor in Sjogren’s trial over pred dose in SLE in a 5-2 vote. In comparison, here is a list of which teams RheumMadness participants thought would win the tournament according to bracket submissions.
- CD19 CAR-T: 29%
- BiTEs: 24%
- STRAP Trial: 12%
- TYK2 in SLE: 9%
- CD40L in Sjogren’s: 6%
- Obinutuzumab in LN: 6%
- Pred dose in SLE: 5%
- Oral anti-IL23: 4$
- Anifrolumab extension: 2%
- SGCAPS: 2%
- ABA in Pre-RA: 0%
- HCQ Screen Cost: 0%
Here’s what the Blue Ribbon Panel had to say in favor of CD40L in Sjogren’s:
- CD40L inhibitor study explores a novel therapy. This strongly aligns with the definition of innovation. The development of a therapy that could modify the disease course represents a major step forward, fulfilling an unmet need. (Something out of nothing!) And it has the potential for a global impact. (Scalable!) Pred dose study is primarily dealing with the optimization of an established cornerstone therapy rather than introducing a new treatment approach.
- This was an extremely difficult choice. Sjogren’s is a disease with no approved treatments. I liked the fact that the trial addressed both disease activity and symptoms. The pred dose trial addressed a problem that we have dealt with since the birth of rheumatology. Rheumatologists are becoming comfortable with using lower doses of corticosteroids in treating our diseases as biologic therapy change treatment paradigms. The pred dose in SLE was a close second.
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Picking CD40L as it gives us hope that we will finally have a specific option for Sjogren’s even for patients without severe organ-threatening disease.
- This tournament has been incredibly fun to be a part of. It has had twists and turns that has been fun to be involved with. My approach to innovation a) is it novel? B) is it an area of need? C) is it an innovative study design? D) was this an interesting selection by the submitting team? E) does it affect a large number of patients? F) is it practical, realistic, affordable and close to actuality? These two teams made it to the finals on the backs of meeting these innovative marks. While I differed from the overall committee on many selections, I commend them for their process. Both these studies take an approach to revolutionize care that affects broad numbers of patients in rheumatology and have had out of the box thinking. The winner though is clearly Cd40L in this round. It is an unmet need for care in Sjogrens and can impact lives of so many patients who have been told there are no good available options. The trial was innovative in tackling the subjective symptoms as well as the easier to follow objective data. They cut down the nets and have their “One Shining Moment” in RheumMadness 2025. Credit to silver medalist Prednisone dosage which challenges assumptions and addresses issues in common practice, but the meta-analysis of prior studies is not nearly as innovative as the new design for a new drug in Sjogrens.
- One panelist did not leave comments (they must have thought the team spoke for itself!)
In contrast, the two panelists in favor of pred dose in SLE had this to say:
- The Sjogren’s CD40L study is of a novel agent and shows benefit in Sicca symptoms but is not yet able to be applied. I can use the data from the Prednisone dose in SLE study tomorrow to inform patient care – that’s the winner for me.
- The steroid dosing study in lupus nephritis delivered strong data to guide a question we face all the time in practice and having clear, evidence-based suggestions for such a common challenge is incredibly valuable. And the graphic was an absolute slam dunk! It was clear, engaging, fun, and by far the best from this year’s scouting event!
How did the participants do?
This year, we had 99 submissions from colleagues all over the world. In fact, of the participants who had never played RheumMadness before, 34% were from a non-US nation. We LOVE growing internationally, and it was so fun to connect with all of you throughout the game!
There were no perfect brackets, but some of you did incredibly well! The winners in our three major categories are as follows:
Overall winner: ola_sou_iago
- Attending: alhkim
- Fellow: WashURheumFellows
- Resident/medical student: ola_sou_iago
Each of the winners will be emailed so they can claim their prize.
You can see all of the top 10 brackets below. Yes, David Leverenz finally did well in the tournament (fulfilling a lifelong dream), but he is disqualified from winning any category as the tournament organizer.
Rank | Bracket Name | Points |
1 | ola_sou_iago | 19 |
2 | WashURheumFellows | 18 |
3 | DavidLeverenz | 17 |
4 | ilereynosa | 15 |
4 | SpanRheum | 15 |
4 | mccuella@gmail.com | 15 |
7 | jacquelinumab | 14 |
7 | alhkim | 14 |
7 | eaw81 | 14 |
7 | sjogrens sjooters | 14 |
Time to say thank you
Now that RheumMadness 2025 is in the books, we have some major thank you-s to hand out.
First, thank you to our amazing scouting report authors. The teams in RheumMadness 2025 were proposed by 67 collaborators (20 attendings, 35 fellows, 5 residents, 5 medical students, 2 “other”) from 21 different institutions around the world. Together, these amazing people wrote fun and informative scouting reports that drew attention to some of the latest and greatest innovations in rheumatology. THANK YOU!
Second, thank you to our amazing Blue Ribbon Panel. While they made some controversial picks this year, I can assure you that they put a ton of thought and effort into making their decisions. We create a panel full of different perspectives of voices for a reason, and that really shined this year. Thank you so much for all of your time!
Third, thank you to our friends from theMednet.org, who created amazing practical Q&As to go along with each team in the tournament. These Q&As helped our participants go deeper into each topic and discover how to apply the knowledge from RheumMadness into their practice today. Thank you for all your time and collaboration!
Fourth, thank you to our incredible RheumMadness leadership team. These incredible people help organize the tournament, provide in-depth peer review of each scouting report and visual tool, contribute to the podcasts, and make amazing tools like our new fellowship toolkit. We couldn’t do this without their contributions!
Last but certainly not least, thank you to our participants. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter, listening to the podcast, submitting a bracket, and interacting on social media. RheumMadness has always been about learning together, and you all continue to bring your amazing craziness about rheumatology each and every year!
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