2026 Recipient of the Mary Betty Stevens Young Investigator Prize

April Jorge, MD

Dr. April Jorge is a rheumatologist and clinical investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research utilizes clinical epidemiology, patient preference elicitation, and clinical trials with the ultimate goal of advancing personalized approaches for SLE treatment and optimizing lupus care and outcomes. Dr. Jorge has led high-impact clinical epidemiology and comparative effectiveness studies, using methods of causal inference including the target trial emulation framework, to determine the risks and benefits of lupus treatments as well as the risk factors for adverse outcomes. Some of Dr. Jorge’s most impactful contributions include rigorous observational studies investigating the risk and risk factors for hydroxychloroquine retinopathy as well as the impact of hydroxychloroquine dose on safety and efficacy of this cornerstone medication in lupus care. She is also leading impactful investigations into potential novel therapeutic indications for hypoglycemic and anti-obesity medications for patients with SLE and lupus nephritis. Her work has been published in top-tier journals including JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, Arthritis & Rheumatology, Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, and Lancet Rheumatology. Her research has been funded through NIH K23, R03, and R01 awards and by the Rheumatology Research Foundation. Dr. Jorge is also highly involved with the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and has co-led national initiatives to develop quality measures for SLE and lupus nephritis and to improve the use of electronic health records/registries to study lupus outcomes.