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Keywords

Arthritis, Psoriatic; Arthritis, Rheumatoid; Epidemiology; Machine Learning; Placebo Effect; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Rheumatology

Research interests

Dr. Andreas Kerschbaumer is a physician-scientist and rheumatologist whose work bridges clinical research, epidemiology, and computational immunology. He trained in internal medicine and rheumatology at the Medical University of Vienna, where he also completed his PhD under Professors Smolen and Aletaha on treatment outcomes in inflammatory arthritis, followed by his habilitation on strategies to optimize clinical trial interpretation in rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis.

His research focuses on clinical trial design, factors influencing treatment outcomes, and the application of advanced bioinformatic methods on heterogeneous datasets. At Stanford University, where he is currently conducting his postdoctoral fellowship in the Robinson and Khatri Labs, his work expands into computational and systems immunology, leveraging transcriptomic datasets to advance understanding of autoimmune disease mechanisms and therapeutic drug responses.

Dr. Kerschbaumer has played leading roles in multiple European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) taskforces, contributing to the 2019, 2022, and 2025 recommendations for the management of rheumatoid arthritis, as well as the 2019 and 2023 recommendations for psoriatic arthritis. He currently serves as a Co-Methodologist in EULAR initiatives, is a member of the EULAR Quality of Care Committee, and acts as Co-Abstract Chair of the ACR Rheumatoid Arthritis abstract committee.

Selected publications

1. Kerschbaumer, A. et al. (2020) ‘Efficacy outcomes in phase 2 and phase 3 randomized controlled trials in rheumatology’, Nature Medicine, 26(6), pp. 974–980. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0833-4.
2. Kerschbaumer, A. et al. (2022) ‘Impact of pre-existing background therapy on placebo responses in randomised controlled clinical trials of rheumatoid arthritis’, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 81(10), pp. 1374–1378. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2021-221807.
3. Kerschbaumer, A. et al. (2023) ‘Influence of active versus placebo control on treatment responses in randomised controlled trials in rheumatoid arthritis’, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 82(4), pp. 476–482. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/ard-2022-223349.
4. Kerschbaumer, A. et al. (2024) ‘Efficacy and safety of pharmacological treatment of psoriatic arthritis: a systematic literature research informing the 2023 update of the EULAR recommendations for the management of psoriatic arthritis’, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 83(6), pp. 760–774. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/ard-2024-225534.
5. Kerschbaumer, A. et al. (2025) ‘Global recruitment patterns and placebo responses in clinical trials of rheumatoid arthritis’, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases [Preprint]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ard.2025.07.010.