Dr. Sambhawana Bhandari joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology as an Assistant Professor in July 2025. She provides comprehensive care to patients with autoimmune diseases, participating in general rheumatology, Rheumatology-Oncology, myositis, and CTD-ILD clinics. Dr. Bhandari’s research focuses on clinical outcomes in patients with rheumatic diseases, including database studies on ICI-induced rheumatic adverse events (iRAEs), critical care outcomes in patients with and without rheumatic diseases, and lung transplant outcomes in CTD-ILD patients. She is also engaged in ongoing research on Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) in CTD-ILD.
In addition, she has authored multiple case reports and co-authored the Rheumatology chapter for the Washington Manual of Medicine. Dr. Bhandari is actively involved in teaching rheumatology fellows, residents, and medical students through clinical rotations and lectures. Her key interests are immune related adverse effects, myositis, connective tissue disease associated interstitial lung disease. Her research interests are database study looking at use of immune checkpoint inhibitors and critical care outcomes, critical care outcomes in patients with rheumatic disease receiving check-point inhibitor therapy, lung transplant trends in connective tissue disease associated interstitial lung disease, outcomes of lung transplants in patients with connective tissue disease associated interstitial lung disease.