Late 2021’s Awards, Appointments & Announcements in Rheumatology

is currently an associate editor of the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology and a volunteer at Community Volunteers in Medicine, West Chester, Pa.

Also in 2021, Dr. Von Feldt was named an ACR Master. She is a strong supporter of the ACR and the Rheumatology Research Foundation, and their missions.

Lisa A. Zichuhr, MD, Receives Rising Star Award from WashU Academy of Educators

Rheumatologist Lisa A. Zickuhr, MD, an assistant professor of medicine, associate director of the Rheumatology Fellowship Training Program and associate director of the medicine clerkship at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, was one of four recipients of the inaugural Rising Star Award in summer 2021. This new award, established by the Washington University Academy of Educators, recognizes current faculty members within 10 years of completing their training who show exceptional promise as educators.

“What makes this award so meaningful,” says Dr. Zickuhr, “is that it’s meant to recognize educators who have skills across the continuum and spectrum of education.”

She attributes her frequent use of foundational teaching concepts to her time as a student with the late Calvin R. Brown, Jr., MD, who was the rheumatology fellowship director at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “I loved and remember his lectures about sports injury and immunosuppression, and those concepts that he taught me carry me through today as a rheumatology educator,” she says.

After medical school, Dr. Zickuhr interned at Washington University, completed her own fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic, and then returned to Washington University as faculty.

“Part of the challenge of being a clinician educator is training today’s trainees for practicing in tomorrow’s healthcare environment,” she notes. She is enthusiastic that the advantages of telemedicine are now part of that preparation. “I find that telemedicine encounters actually help with nonverbal cues [you may be giving, or receiving from, your patient] because you can see your facial expressions in the real-time video platform.” For that reason, she also thinks telemedicine is a useful tool for teaching communication skills.

Gretchen Henkel is a health and medical journalist based in California.