Department of Rheumatology, Ghent University Hospital, Belgium; and Department of Internal Medicine, Ghent University, Belgium. Vanessa Smith has been Head of Clinics at the Ghent University Hospital since 2011 and is Full Professor of Rheumatology at Ghent University. She is member of the steering committee of the European Reference Network on Rare and Complex Connective Tissue and Musculoskeletal Diseases (ERN ReCONNET), and an executive board member of ERN ReCONNET as disease coordinator for systemic sclerosis. She serves as Belgian national expert contact point for Health Authorities for rare connective tissue diseases and is Network Coordinator of the Flemish network on rare connective tissue diseases. Professor Smith is Senior Clinical Investigator of the Research Foundation – Flanders. She is Chair of the EULAR study group on Microcirculation in Rheumatic diseases, and a founding member of the EULAR study group on lung involvement in rheumatic diseases. Professor Smith is Co-Editor of several books, the EULAR online course on capillaroscopy as well as co-author of book chapters and several manuscripts on SSc/microcirculation.

Professor Denton is an international expert on systemic sclerosis (scleroderma) with over 500 peer reviewed publications. His scleroderma programme at the Royal Free Hospital cares for more than 1500 patients. He has led international projects on renal crisis, pulmonary hypertension, and interstitial lung disease. He led publication of the 2024 British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) systemic sclerosis management guideline.