Message from Rheumatology Division Chief Janet Lewis MD
Janet Lewis, MD
As the chief of the Division of Rheumatology, I am proud of the unwavering commitment to patient care exhibited by the Division faculty members, fellows, and clinical staff over the past year.
We continue to have robust demand for clinical services in the ambulatory setting. We currently have six faculty members who see patients at the Fontaine and Pantops practices, and additionally, we have satellite practices at Fishersville. In the past year, the Pantops rheumatology practice under UPG management has been officially incorporated into the Division. We are excited to have Dr. Gitanjali Khurana join our group. Dr. Khurana is one of our former rheumatology fellows.
Additionally, we have been fortunate to have recruited two new clinical faculty who have ties to UVA as former internal medicine residents. Jacob Meindertsma has joined our group this summer and will begin seeing patients in August, and Amanda Lusa will be joining us in October. Dr. Shu Man Fu retired from clinical practice in April 2022 after a 30+ year tenure at UVA. His patients will deeply miss him, but we wish him the best in his well-deserved semi-retirement as he continues his research.
Recognizing the increasing complexity of medical care in patients with multisystem autoimmune disease, we have continued to develop formal partnerships with other specialties. We currently have a combined pulmonary/rheumatology clinic for patients with interstitial lung disease, a combined dermatology/rheumatology clinic for patients with complex cutaneous and rheumatic manifestations and co-management of psoriatic arthritis, and a combined nephrology/rheumatology clinic for patients with SLE and vasculitis. Additionally, we have a procedure clinic dedicated to patients who need ultrasound-guided procedures and diagnostic studies.
The fellowship program continues to grow under the guidance of Dr. Don Kimpel (fellowship director) and Dr. Adam Carlson (associate fellowship director). Nationally, interest in rheumatology fellowship training among internal medicine residents has remained strong, and we continue to be able to recruit high-quality candidates for training. In addition to the fellowship program, our faculty continue to play an active role in teaching medical students and residents.
~ Janet Lewis MD
Clinical Update
The Division of Rheumatology has expanded our practice by including Dr. Jacob Meindertsma in July and Dr. Amanda Lusa in October. We are so excited to have Jacob and Amanda back at UVA!
Dr. Meindertsma completed Medical School and an Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Virginia before continuing to Yale University to complete his Rheumatology Fellowship.
Dr. Amanda Lusa completed Medical School at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; she completed an Internal Medicine Internship and Residency at the University of Virginia and then a Rheumatology Fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
We look forward to expanding our team to include two Advanced Practice Providers and one more faculty member in the coming year.
Educational Update
RHEUMATOLOGY FELLOWSHIP
The Division of Rheumatology Fellowship continues to thrive, and we have had our annual “changing of the guard.” Our graduating second-year fellows Eli Mitcham and Atish Dey take their enthusiasm for Rheumatology (as well as weightlifting and cooking) to Huntsville, Alabama, and Portland, Oregon, respectively. Eli and his wife are taking their dog, Winston Beauregard, the Instagram Pug (@Winstogrampug), with them, but he will continue to serve as our Division of Rheumatology Mascot going forward. We know that he will represent us well in Huntsville. Atish had a case presentation accepted for Thieves Market at the Congress of Clinical Rheumatology in Destin, Florida.
Our two newest fellows, Brian King, and Alden Adkins have begun their transition to Rheumatologists. Brian comes to us from Maine, where he completed his residency and worked as a hospitalist, and Alden returns to UVA, where he attended medical school after his Residency in Cleveland.
We are delighted to have two new teaching faculty coming on board this fall to participate in the fellowship program, both of whom did their residency training at UVA. Jacob Meindertsma completed his Fellowship at Yale, including training in musculoskeletal ultrasound. Amanda Lusa completed her training at the University of North Carolina and worked for two years as a Rheumatology Clinician there until her return to Charlottesville. She is also trained in musculoskeletal ultrasound.
A few updates from former fellows include Dr. David Stevens, who completed his training in 2011, and Dr. Majd Freijat, who completed his training in 2019. Dr. Stevens is a teaching Rheumatologist at St Olav’s Hospital in Norway and presented some of his recent work at the EULAR international Rheumatology meeting in Copenhagen Denmark. Dr. Freijat has opened his own clinic, Flow Rheumatology, in Scottsdale, Arizona, and has welcomed his first child.
SELECT PUBLICATIONS
Kimpel DL*, Kannan K. (2022) “Dissecting the Role of Platelet Function in Inflammatory Arthritis. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases” Abstract # POS0445. Presentation at 2022 European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) Congress, with Pre-recorded audio, June 1-4 2022.
Mofidi J, Kimpel D, Statuta S*. (2022). “Painful Knee Effusion in a 42-year-old male with HIV.” In Best Practices in Sports Medicine: AMSSM and AOASM Case Studies. IN PRESS.
Kimpel, D. “Teaching Pearl” presentation for Rheumatology Program Director’s Education Exchange, 2022. “The Rheumatologist.” Pearls of Wisdom: Innovations in Teaching.
Pantelis Pavlakis, Theresa Lawrence Fork, Janet Lewis, Shalini Mahajan, Steven Mandel, and Daniel Wallace. “Management of Central Nervous System Complications in Sjogrens.” The Sjogren’s Book, 5th edition, 2022.
Filed Under: Basic Research, Clinical Research, Education, In the Know, News and Notes, Publications, Research