Anca Askanase, MD

Rheumatology
Accepting New Patients
Virtual Visits/Telehealth
Profile Headshot

Overview

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Dr. Anca Dinu Askanase recently joined the CUMC Rheumatology faculty where she is the founder and clinical director of Columbia's new Lupus Center and the Director of Rheumatology Clinical Trials. Dr. Askanase is an internationally renowned clinician, diagnostician and researcher with more than 15 years specializing in complex Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Dr. Askanase trained as a rheumatologist at New York University where she remained for more than 15 years on faculty, directing clinical trials, training fellows and residents, and treating challenging cases of SLE at NYU's prestigious Hospitals.

Dr. Askanase's academic career has focused primarily on the care of patients with SLE and other autoimmune diseases.In order to provide better care for patients suffering from these devastating diseases, she embarked on a journey of research and discovery, with the goal of understanding disease outcomes from both the patients' and physicians' perspective while helping to redefine 21st century therapeutic options. It is Dr. Askanase's hope that by helping to establish widely accepted parameters for quantifying the impact of the disease and the response to medications, all doctors will have effective benchmarks and therapeutic options to better treat patients with SLE's often confounding symptoms.

In addition to numerous publications and benchmark clinical trials, Dr. Askanase is a member of the two major international consortia aimed at providing the collaboration between lupus doctors needing to improve outcomes and therapies in Lupus: the SLICC (SLE international Collaborating Clinics) and the LNTN (Lupus Nephritis Trial Network).Dr. Askanase believes that excellent care often involves bringing novel therapies to her patients with Lupus and other autoimmune diseases; thus, she has been involved in every major SLE clinical drug trial and multiple NIH and industry sponsored clinical trials. One of her most rewarding experiences was her involvement as the Site Principal Investigator in the registrational study that led to the FDA approval of Belimumab, the first new Lupus drug in over 50 years. Dr. Askanase also designed and executed the only study looking at a rational approach (based on pharmacogenetics and metabolite measurement) to use Azathioprine in the treatment of Lupus. She is currently evaluating the use of ACTH as a steroid alternative in lupus nephritis. Dr. Askanase is also a proud Columbia Alumnus and still lives in Morningside Heights with her husband and two children.

Areas of Expertise / Conditions Treated

  • Arthritis, Rheumatoid
  • Lupus
  • Rheumatic Disease
  • Sjogren's Syndrome
  • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
  • Vasculitis

Academic Appointments

  • Professor of Medicine at CUMC

Hospital Affiliations

  • NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Languages

  • French
  • Romanian
  • Spanish

Gender

  • Female

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Virtual Visits/Telehealth

Virtual Visits allow you to connect with your provider from the comfort, convenience, and safety of your own home.

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Phone Appointments

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Location(s)

51 West 51st Street
New York, NY 10019
161 Fort Washington Avenue
New York, NY 10032

Insurance Accepted

Affinity Health Plan

  • Medicaid Managed Care

AgeWell

  • Medicare Managed Care
  • Special Needs

Cigna

  • EPO
  • Great West (National)
  • HMO
  • Medicare Managed Care
  • POS
  • PPO

Emblem/GHI

  • Medicare Managed Care
  • PPO

Emblem/HIP

  • ConnectiCare
  • EPO
  • Essential Plan
  • HMO
  • Medicaid Managed Care
  • Medicare Managed Care
  • POS
  • PPO
  • Select Care (Exchange)
  • Vytra

Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield

  • EPO

Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield HealthPlus

  • Child/Family Health Plus
  • Essential Plan

Fidelis Care

  • Child/Family Health Plus
  • Essential Plan
  • Medicaid Managed Care
  • Medicare Managed Care

Healthfirst

  • Child/Family Health Plus
  • Leaf (Exchange)
  • Medicare Managed Care

Local 1199

  • Local 1199

MagnaCare (National)

  • MagnaCare

Medicare

  • Railroad
  • Traditional Medicare

Multiplan

  • Multiplan

MVP Health Care

  • Child/Family Health Plus
  • Essential Plan
  • HMO
  • Medicaid Managed Care

Quality Health Management

  • Quality Health Management

RiverSpring

  • Special Needs

UnitedHealthcare

  • Compass (Exchange)
  • Empire Plan
  • HMO
  • Medicaid (Community Plan)
  • Oxford Freedom
  • Oxford HMO
  • Oxford Liberty
  • POS
  • PPO

WellCare

  • Medicare Managed Care
  • New Jersey Services (Medicaid Managed Care)

World Trade Center Health Plan

  • World Trade Center Health Plan

*Please contact the provider’s office directly to verify that your particular insurance is accepted.

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • MPH, Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
  • MD, 1989 Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy-Carol Davilla (Romania)
  • 1989 Instit De Medicina Si Farmacie Carol Davila
  • 2003 Columbia University School of Public Health
  • Internship: St. Lukes Roosevelt Hospital Center
  • Residency: St. Lukes Roosevelt Hospital Center
  • Fellowship: Hospital for Joint Diseases

Board Certifications

  • Rheumatology
America's Top Doctor
NY Top Doctor

Research

As a lupus physician and investigator previously at New York University School of Medicine/NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, Dr. Askanase gained extensive experience with SLE patients, established a lupus cohort and participated in multiple lupus clinical trials. At Columbia, she founded and currently directs the Columbia University Lupus Center and serves as the Director of Rheumatology Clinical Trials. Dr. Askanase has identified all of the patients followed at the Columbia University Medical Center and established a new cohort of SLE patients that includes a large number of Hispanic patients of Dominican origin and allows for multiple observational studies addressing SLE activity and damage. Lupus patients move seamlessly from clinical care into NIH, investigator initiated and industry sponsored therapeutic SLE clinical trials that ensure access to promising new medications and excellent care. Dr. Askanase's experience at NYU and Columbia has highlighted the heterogeneity and complexity of SLE and the need for comprehensive care for lupus patients as well as simple and efficient SLE disease activity measures. Her group is in the process of establishing a patient-centered medical home system for the care of lupus patients that provides easy around-the-clock access to a heath care provider for all lupus patients in the hope of decreasing emergency room visits and hospitalizations in high-risk lupus patients. In collaboration with the Lupus Foundation of America, they have developed a simple and easy-to-use outcome measure that includes both the physician and patient’s perspective. This outcome measure could inform the tailoring of medication regimens in clinical trials and in clinical care in order to achieve low disease activity and remission in SLE.