Welcome to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast with Dr. Kerry Reller! In this episode, I’m joined by Sarah Lakadawala, DNP, one of our own at Clearwater Family Medicine & Allergy. Sarah shares what it means to earn a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and breaks down her doctoral quality improvement project exploring GLP-1 therapy (semaglutide) in patients with autoimmune disease—not primarily for weight loss, but for quality of life.

We discuss what autoimmune disease is, why inflammation and fatigue are so common, and why Sarah chose to evaluate low-dose and “microdose” semaglutide in this population. She walks through her study design, baseline labs, and the two evidence-based questionnaires she used (Fatigue Severity Scale and PROMIS-29)—plus what improved, what didn’t, and what she’d do differently next time (including narrowing to one autoimmune condition and adding body composition/visceral fat data). We also talk about real-world clinical nuance: steroids, biologics, CRP limitations, and the importance of consistent anti-inflammatory habits.

Sarah Lakadawala is a nurse practitioner at CFMA. She earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the University of South Florida, where her work focused on GLP-1 therapy and autoimmune conditions.

0:28 – Welcome + Sarah’s background (DNP, ICU → urgent care → family medicine)
1:31 – What a DNP is and why nurses pursue it
3:31 – Her project: GLP-1s in autoimmune patients (beyond weight loss)
4:44 – Study type overview: QI vs RCT vs meta-analysis
5:47 – Autoimmune disease explained + inflammation/obesity connection
7:40 – Study design: baseline labs, CRP, and quality-of-life surveys
9:10 – Microdosing semaglutide: starting at 0.125 mg
10:45 – PROMIS-29 + Fatigue Severity Scale: what improved
11:50 – Why CRP wasn’t statistically significant + meds confounders
14:17 – Dose changes (0.125 vs 0.25), fatigue nuance, and switching to tirzepatide
19:11 – Med reductions, fewer flares, and what she’d improve next time

Connect with Dr. Reller
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