New Rheumatologist Aboard URMC Team

URMC is pleased to welcome new rheumatologist Bethany Marston, M.D., on faculty as an assistant professor of both Medicine and Pediatrics.

With Marston splitting time between pediatric and adult rheumatology clinics, URMC hopes to cut waitlist delays for new patients with autoimmune conditions like arthritis, lupus, vasculitis and more. 

At the unique intersection of pediatric and adult rheumatologic care, Marston hopes to research how teens and young adults adjust to independently managing their own disease (ordering their own refills, for instance). She also hopes to educate residents – many of who will become tomorrow’s primary care physicians – about the importance of their role on the “front lines” of rheumatologic care.

“With today’s rheumatologists so inundated with patients, training primary care physicians to be comfortable prescribing an introductory regimen of an inflammatory medicine could be invaluable, especially if a patient’s disease is fast-moving,” Marston said.

Currently, Marston is working with Christopher Ritchlin, M.D., M.P.H., to find ways to forecast which patients with psoriasis (a red, flaky skin disorder) are most likely to suffer from an arthritic disease that sometimes follows. She is also eager to explore the clinical impact of in-room ultrasound machines for pediatric patients. The machines, she said, would offer a real-time, under-the-skin look at how an inflammatory disease is progressing, or how effectively a medication is working.

“Having access to an affordable, in-office diagnostic tool would be especially helpful for kids because it could yield valuable clinical information instantly – unlike other scans, such as MRIs, which generally require a separate appointment and that the child be sedated,” she explained.

Marston completed her residency (Internal Medicine and Pediatrics) and rheumatology fellowship at Strong Memorial Hospital. She is a graduate of both Dartmouth College (where she received a B.A. in Genetics) and the University of Maryland School of Medicine (M.D.).

For more information or to make an appointment with Marston, call 275-4733 (pediatric patients) or 341-7900 (patients 18 and older).