University of Nebraska Division of Rheumatology and Immunology Makes Education, Clinical Research Top Priorities

Dr. Thiele is attuned to the changing needs of student learners and wrestles with new modalities to teach and assess students’ understanding and application of basic immunological principles. His efforts must be resonating: He has been recognized every year since 1995 for excellence in teaching by the Department of Internal Medicine’s Education Committee, and by the College of Medicine with multiple teaching awards. He modestly brushes aside the accolades—“the rumors are I do it [teach] okay.”

As with the other faculty with whom we spoke, Dr. Thiele has the greatest regard for his colleagues. “I love being here. I don’t ever want to leave,” he says.

Building More Capacity

Dr. Michael G. Feely

Like Dr. Cannella, Marcus H. Snow, MD, spent time in private practice following his training and before joining the division faculty. An assistant professor of internal medicine since 2015, Dr. Snow has developed a scleroderma clinic with the encouragement of Dr. O’Dell.

“I think my time in private practice gave me some perspective,” he reflects. In addition to the role models provided by Drs. Moore and Klassen, Dr. Snow appreciates Dr. O’Dell’s leadership style. “We [he and his faculty colleagues] tend to be internally motivated here. I’ve transitioned from resident to fellow to faculty, and I realize how lucky I am. Jim [Dr. O’Dell] provides long-term guidance, but he doesn’t micromanage.”

Michael G. Feely, MD, assistant professor of medicine, was initially drawn to the rheumatology program by its emphasis on “education above everything else,” he says. He completed his fellowship in 2010, and is now director of the Clinic for Inflammatory Myopathies, located in a freestanding multispecialty clinic under the Nebraska Medical Center in West Omaha. He also contributes to research activities through the RAIN and VARA biobanks, collecting serum samples on his patients who have inflammatory myopathies.

Dr. Marcus H. Snow

The emphasis on education has paid off, in large part due to the strategic placement of rheumatologists in the university system, according to Dr. O’Dell, who received an ACR Distinguished Clinical Investigator Award in 2016. Each year for the past 25, the division has successfully trained one rheumatologist in 25 residents, an average that ranks among the very best in the nation.

Dr. O’Dell and other senior faculty clearly manage to convey the passion they feel for their specialty to residents. That was the case for Steven Craig, MD, who is with the Iowa Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center, a 12-provider single-specialty private practice in Urbandale, Iowa, serving the Greater Des Moines and surrounding areas. He was part of the second class of fellows from the program that began in 2006–2007.