Payal Suthar, DO

Arthritis & Rheumatology Center PC is pleased to welcome Dr. Payal Suthar, board certified in rheumatology and internal medicine. With a strong background in both clinical practice and research, Dr. Suthar brings over a decade of experience in the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune diseases and musculoskeletal disorders.

Dr. Suthar was raised in the Chicago suburbs and completed her medical schooling at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University where she was a member and leader of the Sigma Phi honorary Osteopathic fraternity among several other organizations committed to community service and love for medicine. She then completed her internal medicine residency at Loyola University Chicago and her rheumatology fellowship at Medical College of Wisconsin. Her mentors during her fellowship helped further her critical thinking and love for rheumatology, shaping her into the rheumatologist she is today. She eventually left the Midwest and settled in the Atlanta area, previously working at a large multi-specialty group for over 10 years before joining our group.

Dr. Suthar's goal is to provide exceptional care while working with patients one on one, partaking in a shared decision-making process. She understands the tremendous impact these autoimmune conditions can have on a patient's well-being and strives to develop an appropriate treatment plan. Dr. Suthar takes great pride in assisting patients to achieve normalcy again in their lives stricken by joint pain/inflammation. She treats all rheumatologic conditions with special interest in rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriatic arthritis, gout, sarcoidosis, ankylosing spondylitis, vasculitis, Sjögren's syndrome, osteoporosis.

Dr. Suthar is a member of the American College of Rheumatology and Georgia Society of Rheumatology.

Fluent in English and Gujarati, Dr. Suthar is able to carry out limited conversations in Hindi and Spanish.

In her free time, Dr. Suthar enjoys spending time with her husband and 2 children, traveling, arts and crafts, and healthy cooking.

Prior Research & Publications

Medical College of Wisconsin Immunology Research 2012-2014

Performed bench research alongside clinical immunologists looking at human blood in control and SLE patients and evaluating Tfh and Treg cell populations in these cohorts utilizing antibodies to cell surface markers. Worked with Flow cytometry.

Loyola Undergraduate Genetics Research 2002-2005

Sequenced and constructed a detailed physical map of the short arm of human chromosome 21 (HC21) not characterized by the Human Genome Project with focus on centromeric non-disjunction events seen in Down syndrome. Extracted data comparing repetitive sequences to other chromosomes thus supporting discovery of a new subfamily of Satellite I repeat structure. Experience also involved understanding and utilizing genetic computer programming (Seqman, Chromas, DNAStar, Primerselect) while working alongside the University of Chicago Genetics Lab. Received Mulcahy Scholarship for this project. Senior Honors Thesis was presented by time of graduation. Submitted genetic sequence data from the short arm of HC21 to GenBank.

Abstracts / Publications

R. Marri, P. Patel, A. Thakkar, R. Tehrani, R. Ostrowski. Diseases Associated with Markedly Elevated Ferritin Levels. ACR Annual Meeting. November 2012.

J.P. Gagermeier, P. Patel, J. Joseph, P.M. Fischiella, C.S. Davis, C.G. Survival Stratification in Scleroderma Patients by DeMeester. Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. April 2012.

Hettinger, R., J. Bavarian, P. Patel, T. George, M. Puckelwartz, S. McCutcheon, M. Cummings and J. Doering. 2005. Organization of Satellite I and Satellite III Sequences on Human Chromosome 21. Genomics Meeting. October 2005.