Expert list · Last reviewed April 17, 2026
Top Rheumatologists for Lupus in Massachusetts
Find top rheumatologists for lupus in Massachusetts. Boston-based specialists with deep experience in autoimmune disease and connective tissue disorders.
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Massachusetts has a deep bench of top rheumatologists for lupus, concentrated in the Boston teaching hospitals that see the state's hardest autoimmune cases — here is where to start.
Lupus is notoriously hard to pin down. It mimics other diseases, flares without warning, and can target the kidneys, lungs, brain, or skin in different patients. The rheumatologists below practice at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, both of which run high-volume lupus clinics and see patients referred from across New England. Their published research covers the complications that make lupus difficult: lung involvement, overlapping autoimmune conditions, bone loss, and outcomes when other illnesses pile on top.
Dr. Dellaripa practices rheumatology at Massachusetts General Hospital with additional ties to Newton-Wellesley and the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center. His clinical focus sits at the overlap of rheumatology and pulmonary medicine, which matters for lupus patients because lung complications are common and often underdiagnosed. He sees patients whose autoimmune disease has started to affect how they breathe, and he works closely with lung specialists on treatment plans. A 2017 review in CHEST Journal on lung manifestations in rheumatic diseases 1 is widely used as a reference by both rheumatologists and pulmonologists.
Dr. Massarotti cares for patients with lupus and other autoimmune conditions at Massachusetts General Hospital, with additional affiliations at North Shore Medical Center and Northeast Hospital. She is often called on for diagnostic puzzles — patients whose symptoms fit lupus but also overlap with rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's, or Lyme disease. Her research spans the antibody patterns and genetic markers that separate these conditions 78, which shapes how she orders and interprets lab work in complicated cases.
Dr. Charles is a physician-scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital who also sees patients at Beth Israel Deaconess Plymouth and Newton-Wellesley. Her lab studies how immune cells drive bone loss in inflammatory arthritis, which speaks directly to lupus patients at risk for osteoporosis from both the disease and long courses of steroids. A 2014 paper in Trends in Molecular Medicine on osteoclasts 12 and a 2012 Journal of Clinical Investigation study on inflammatory arthritis and bone precursors 15 anchor her clinical approach to protecting joints and bones over the long haul.
Dr. Stone practices at Massachusetts General Hospital and is best known for his work on IgG4-related disease and vasculitis — two conditions that can mimic lupus and lead to misdiagnosis. Patients with unusual lupus presentations, kidney or salivary gland involvement, or prior treatment failures often end up in his clinic. He co-authored the 2012 Chapel Hill Consensus classification of vasculitis 16 and a 2012 New England Journal of Medicine review on IgG4-related disease 17 that together set how these conditions are diagnosed internationally.
Marcy Bolster, MD
Director, Rheumatology Fellowship Training Program
Massachusetts General Hospital
View specialist profileDr. Bolster directs the rheumatology fellowship training program at Massachusetts General Hospital and cares for adults with lupus, scleroderma, and other connective tissue diseases. Her clinical experience with scleroderma lung disease, including a 2007 Arthritis & Rheumatism study on cyclophosphamide and quality of life 25, translates well to lupus patients with lung or skin involvement. Because she trains the next generation of rheumatologists, her clinic tends to bring a systematic, protocol-driven approach to complex autoimmune care.
Jeffrey Sparks, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Brigham and Women's Hospital
View specialist profileDr. Sparks is an associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He treats lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and patients navigating infections or other illnesses alongside autoimmune disease. During the pandemic he led a cohort study on how rheumatic disease patients fared with COVID-19 28 and contributed to work on persistent infection in immunocompromised patients 26. For lupus patients on immunosuppressants, that kind of research shapes practical day-to-day advice on vaccines, infections, and medication timing.
What to look for in a rheumatology specialist
- Board certification in rheumatology
- Academic affiliation with a teaching hospital that runs a dedicated lupus clinic
- Experience with your specific organ involvement (kidney, lung, skin, neurological)
- Wait time for a new-patient visit and whether they're accepting new patients
- Insurance compatibility and referral requirements
- Access to coordinated care with nephrology, dermatology, and maternal-fetal medicine if you may become pregnant
Questions to ask before your first appointment
- How many lupus patients do you treat each year?
- Do you work as part of a multidisciplinary team if my lupus affects my kidneys or lungs?
- What is your approach to monitoring disease activity and adjusting medications?
- How do you handle flares between scheduled visits?
- What is your experience managing lupus during pregnancy?
- Can you coordinate with my primary care doctor and any other specialists I see?
The bottom line
The rheumatologists on this list all practice in Boston and pull referrals from across Massachusetts. If your case is straightforward, a local rheumatologist closer to home may serve you well — ask your primary care doctor for a referral. If you have organ involvement, an unclear diagnosis, or have not improved on standard therapy, seeking a second opinion at one of these academic programs is a reasonable next step.
Sources
- 1.
- 2.Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis Soon After Therapy With Infliximab, a Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha–Neutralizing Antibody: A Possible Healthcare-Associated Case? — Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, 2003. DOI
- 3.Open-Label, Pilot Study of the Safety and Clinical Effects of Rituximab in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Pneumonia — Open Journal of Rheumatology and Autoimmune Diseases, 2012. DOI
- 4.Survival and outcomes after lung transplantation for non-scleroderma connective tissue–related interstitial lung disease — The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, 2017. DOI
- 5.The Design and Rationale of the Trail1 Trial: A Randomized Double-Blind Phase 2 Clinical Trial of Pirfenidone in Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease — Advances in Therapy, 2019. DOI
- 6.The Work Limitations Questionnaire's validity and reliability among patients with osteoarthritis — Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 2002. DOI
- 7.Regulation of anti–cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis: Contrasting effects of HLA–DR3 and the shared epitope alleles — Arthritis & Rheumatism, 2005. DOI
- 8.The PTPN22 R620W polymorphism associates with RF positive rheumatoid arthritis in a dose-dependent manner but not with HLA-SE status — Genes and Immunity, 2004. DOI
- 9.Lichen planus–like eruptions: An emerging side effect of tumor necrosis factor-α antagonists — Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 2009. DOI
- 10.
- 11.Inhibitory phosphorylation of the APC regulator Hct1 is controlled by the kinase Cdc28 and the phosphatase Cdc14 — Current Biology, 1999. DOI
- 12.
- 13.A Late Mitotic Regulatory Network Controlling Cyclin Destruction in<i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> — Molecular Biology of the Cell, 1998. DOI
- 14.The Polo-related kinase Cdc5 activates and is destroyed by the mitotic cyclin destruction machinery in S. cerevisiae — Current Biology, 1998. DOI
- 15.Inflammatory arthritis increases mouse osteoclast precursors with myeloid suppressor function — Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2012. DOI
- 16.2012 Revised International Chapel Hill Consensus Conference Nomenclature of Vasculitides — Arthritis & Rheumatism, 2012. DOI
- 17.
- 18.Estimates of the prevalence of arthritis and other rheumatic conditions in the United States: Part I — Arthritis & Rheumatism, 2007. DOI
- 19.
- 20.IgG4‐Related Disease: Clinical and Laboratory Features in One Hundred Twenty‐Five Patients — Arthritis & Rheumatology, 2015. DOI
- 21.Cytokine concentrations in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of patients with systemic sclerosis — Arthritis & Rheumatism, 1997. DOI
- 22.Ulnar artery involvement in systemic sclerosis (scleroderma). — PubMed, 2002.
- 23.Correlates of depression, including overall and gastrointestinal functional status, among patients with systemic sclerosis. — PubMed, 2005.
- 24.Imaging of in vitro and in vivo bones and joints with continuous-wave diffuse optical tomography — Optics Express, 2001. DOI
- 25.Impact of oral cyclophosphamide on health‐related quality of life in patients with active scleroderma lung disease: Results from the scleroderma lung study — Arthritis & Rheumatism, 2007. DOI
- 26.Persistence and Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in an Immunocompromised Host — New England Journal of Medicine, 2020. DOI
- 27.
- 28.Clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and rheumatic disease: a comparative cohort study from a US ‘hot spot‘ — Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 2020. DOI
- 29.Being overweight or obese and risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis among women: a prospective cohort study — Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 2014. DOI
- 30.Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity Predicting Incident Clinically Apparent Rheumatoid Arthritis–Associated Interstitial Lung Disease: A Prospective Cohort Study — Arthritis & Rheumatology, 2019. DOI
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