Lisa Zickuhr, MD, MHPE, has been selected as the Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Teaching Fellow

Dr. Lisa Zickuhr has been selected as the Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Teaching Fellow for the term July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2026. Dr. Zickuhr’s project is titled Feedback on Feedback: Iterative Feedback to Improve Assessors’ Written Narrative of Internal Medicine Clerkship Students. The Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Teaching Fellows program provides fellows the opportunity to implement ideas that augment the education of medical students, residents and fellows. Initiated in 2004 with a gift from Carol and Jerome Loeb and supported by The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital, the program was established to advance clinical education at Washington University School of Medicine by honoring faculty committed to clinical excellence and education, and encouraging teaching that excellence to medical students, residents, and fellows.

Deborah Lenschow, MD, PhD, and Lisa Zickuhr MD, MHPE, are honored with the 2024 Dean’s Impact Award recognizing outstanding mentorship and sponsorship

Dr. Lenschow is being recognized for her enduring commitment to the advancement of WUSM physician-scientists, serving as co-Director of the Oliver Langenberg Physician-Scientist Training Program since 2014.  She was also instrumental in establishing the Kornfield Post-Baccalaureate Scholars Program that targets underrepresented candidates for the physician-scientist pipeline.

Dr. Zickuhr’s exceptional mentorship and sponsorship have positively impacted medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty. Her enthusiasm and love of teaching and mentoring are recognized locally, regionally, and nationally. She established the Health Equity Case Conference (HECC), which allows fellows to explore social and structural barriers complicating patient care. She obtained grant support for an initiative called “Meeting our Community” in partnership with community activists to highlight local resources beyond the WUSM campus.

The Divisions of Pediatric and Adult Rheumatology at Washington University were well represented at the 2023 ACR Convergence in San Diego. Deborah Parks, MD, continues to serve as a member-at-large on the ACR Board of Directors. Al Kim, MD, PhD, is Chair, Impact Advisory Council on the Rheumatology Research Foundation. Lisa Zickuhr, MD, MHPE, serves on the V-FIT subcommittee as the lead for ViP and ViTLs; she is also the team lead for Workforce & Education on the Annual Meeting Planning Committee.

We enjoyed reconnecting with our former trainees at the annual division reception. Many have gone on to illustrious careers: Doug White, MD, PhD, a former WashU fellow, served as the 2023 ACR President; Christopher Phillips, MD, is the incoming ACR Committee on Rheumatologic Care (CORC). Jasvinder Singh, MD, MPH, is the Nancy Chang Endowed Chair and new section Chief of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology at Baylor College of Medicine.

The current Washington University faculty and fellows gave 17 podium presentations and posters. Our second-year fellows Dr. Alissa Chandler and Dr. Mohamed Babiker-Mohamed participated in the first Knowledge Bowl ever, coached by Dr. Deepali Sen.

The Division of Rheumatology at Washington University continues to expand its clinical operations. Patients with rheumatic diseases in Missouri and Southern Illinois are seen at 4 clinical sites (Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Center for Advanced Medicine, Barnes-Jewish West County, Barnes-Jewish South County, The Village Square at North County) and the John Cochran VA Medical Center by 20 full-time and part-time providers and 5 nurse practitioners.  Our service averages more than 19,000 outpatient and more than 2,500 inpatient visits per year. We have also greatly expanded our subspecialty clinics to include:

Alissa came to our fellowship program from Loyola University Medical Center. During her clinical rheumatology fellowship Alissa was selected through competitive application process for the Washington University Teaching Physicians Pathway (WUTPP), a professional development pathway focused on learning theory, curriculum design, and best teaching practices. As a faculty in the Division of Rheumatology, Alissa will continue her focus on education, taking on the responsibility of supervising the Rheumatology Clinical Electives Program

Senada obtained her Adult Primary Care Nurse Practitioner certification from Goldfarb School of Nursing in August of 2020.  Since graduation Senada has spent time in medical oncology, intensive care unit, home care, and primary care before coming to us.  Senada is enthusiastic and excited about starting her new journey with the Division of Rheumatology….and we are equally excited to have her join our team. Senada is based at The Village Square in North County.

Andrew completed his MD, PhD, at Saint Louis University prior to matriculation to our Rheumatology Fellowship Program. Andrew is interested in vasculitis and took the initiative to develop a registry and biobank, including RedCap database within the Vasculitis Clinic, which will be a valuable resource for future clinical/translational studies. Andrew will split his time at WashU, continuing his work in the Vasculitis Clinic, and the John Cochran VAMC. He will join our faculty in July 2024.

Sana obtained her MBBS at King Edward Medical University, Lahore Pakistan in 2012. After residency and rheumatology fellowship at Ascension St. John Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, Sana relocated to St. Louis in 2022 for family reasons.  Sana is based at South County and at the CAM.

Babiker was born in Sweden, grew up in Sudan, and graduated from University of Khartoum with a Bachelor in Medicine and Surgery. After residency at Presence St. Joseph Hospital, Chicago and a stint as assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, he joined our fellowship program in 2022. Babiker is interested in starting a subspecialty clinic to provide state-of-the-art care to patients with Spondyloarthritis and build a registry for clinical/translational research. He will join our faculty in September 2024.

Jessica completed her Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School before joining the Division of Rheumatology at Emory University School of Medicine in 2021. As an African American physician-scientist who grew up in rural Alabama, Jessica is passionate about clinical and epidemiologic research to advance understanding and management of lupus, with a focus on diverse and underserved patient populations. Jessica will join our Rheum Family in October 2024. Her research will focus on studying environmental and social determinant of health risk factors for lupus and adverse lupus outcomes among patients residing in rural Missouri.

The Division of Rheumatology enthusiastically celebrates the education of all learners, from medical students and residents to fellows and independently practicing providers.

Our Rheumatology Interest Group engages Medical Students and Internal Medicine Residents interested in careers in rheumatology. Last summer, we met at the Kemper Art Museum, where faculty selected artworks that represented their motivation for becoming a rheumatologist. This spring, Sambhawana Bhandari, MD, one of the Division’s first-year fellows and a skilled artist, will lead attendees through a paint and sip mixer. The initiative attracts early-stage trainees (medical students and internal medicine residents), which will prompt them to consider a career in rheumatology.

Second-year fellow Christopher Podgorski, MD, is partnering with educators at Henry Ford Hospital Division of Rheumatology to gather validity evidence for a novel model that simulates swollen hand joints observed on exam. The initiative includes Dr. Podgorski instructing internal medicine residents rotating through rheumatology electives how to examine the hands, providing opportunities for simulated practice, and then guiding residents to apply their skills to patient care. 

Rheumatology Fellowship Training Programs at Washington University, University of Alabama-Birmingham, and University of Colorado collaboratively hosted a virtual ROSCE for their fellows. Faculty and staff from all three programs created stations ranging from the interpretation of musculoskeletal radiology and clinical images to applying musculoskeletal exam techniques and refining the nuanced skills of shared decision-making during virtual care encounters. The event is educational and fun, offering a chance for fellows to network and learn from faculty at other institutions.

In February of each year the Division of Rheumatology presents the Rheumatology Update and Highlights from the ACR. Chaired by Dr. Prabha Ranganathan, the event is attended by approximately 100 healthcare providers from the Saint Louis and surrounding areas and participants earn both CME and MOC points. This year the panel of Washington University Rheumatologists, Drs. Amy Joseph, Colin Diffie, Deborah Parks, Al Kim, Deepali Sen, Aisha Shaikh, Michael Paley, Vladimir Despotovic present updates and highlights from the 2023 ACR Convergence on rheumatoid arthritis, Spondyloarthritis, crystalline arthritis, vasculitis, SLE, scleroderma, myositis, CTD-interstitial lung diseases,

Happy FUNuary!! During the month of February, we celebrate a healthy balance of education and wellness, intentionally timed at the peak of the winter blues. For example, fellows participated in journal clubs and case discussions with visiting professors Jason Springer, MD, MS, (co-Director, The Vanderbilt Vasculitis Clinic) and Vivek Nagaraja, MBBS, MD, (Rheumatology Division Chair, Mayo Clinic Arizona). They also engaged in a workshop led by José Garza, Museum Academic Programs Coordinator at the Kemper Art Museum, who specializes in the integration of socialization and perspective building through drawing. FUNuary concludes with a Dr. Mario Tetris Championship. It’s easy to think of the game’s different tablets as hydroxychloroquine, methotrexate, folic acid with the guidance of José Garza, Museum Academic Programs Coordinator at Kemper Art Museum, fellows observe and reflect on various perspectives as well as the differences between reality and representation depicted in their drawings. These are skills that enhance wellness and patient care alike!

And it is not always all work and no play. Outside of work, our fellows bond over fun outings' to several iconic Saint Louis attractions such as The Saint Louis Zoo and The Forest Park Balloon Glow.

A  multidisciplinary team of scientists including Farshid Guilak, PhD, (Orthopedic Surgery), Christine Pham, MD, and Hua Pan, PhD, (Rheumatology), Lori Setton, PhD, (Biomedical Engineering), Erik Herzog, PhD,  (Biology), and Xiaoxia Cui, PhD, (Genome Engineering & Stem Cell Center at McDonnell Genome Institute) received a $31M award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop treatments that promote tissue regeneration and restore joints, the Novel Innovations for Tissue Regeneration in Osteoarthritis (NITRO) moonshot initiative. The team will leverage the award to create first-in-kind nanoparticle-based platforms for the in vivo delivery of synthetic “smart” gene circuits that home to the joint for long-term regenerative osteoarthritis therapy.  We also work with Andwele Jolly, DPT, (St. Louis Integrated Health Network) and Matlock Jeffries, MD, (Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation) toward ARPA-H’s goals of providing equitable demographic representation in our clinical trial and a better understanding of the unique barriers to healthcare access for the underserved populations. 

Read more about the NITRO Award on WUSM-The Record and ARPA-H 

John Atkinson, MD, and Kathy Liszewski of the Rheumatology Division were interviewed as part of the Journal of Immunology’s Pillar Talk video series that went live January 2024. Pillar Talk Ep. 15: The Evolution of CD46 from a Complement Regulator to an Orchestrator of Normal Cell Physiology. The discussion profiled CD46, a ubiquitously expressed complement membrane regulator. It can be seen at   https://vimeo.com/900879965

 Check out the Division of Rheumatology research output on the Becker Library website here.

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