Susan Blumel’s career as a clinical research nurse, spanning over three decades, began in 1988 in the bone marrow transplant unit at UNMC.
Now, Blumel is the lead clinical study nurse coordinator for the Clinical Trials Office at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, where she coordinates cutting-edge treatment plans for investigational therapies working with multiple departments across campus.
Gold U, too
John Ingraham, security supervisor in the UNMC Public Safety Office with 46 years of service to UNMC, also will be honored with the Gold U Award for August. See an upcoming UNMC Today for an article on Ingraham, who is lauded for his honesty, institutional knowledge, reliability and excellence in his work.
For her leadership, courage and dedication to her job, Blumel has been selected as one of UNMC’s Kudos winners and Gold U Award recipients for August. She will be honored at the University of Nebraska Board of Regents meeting.
In 1993, Blumel transitioned to a position in clinical trials under the guidance of Julie Vose, MD, Neumann M. and Mildred E. Harris Professor, who was developing a clinical trials program in lymphoma and now serves as chief of the oncology and hematology division at UNMC.
“Susan is a thoughtful and caring research nurse who is a wonderful role model for all research personnel,” Dr. Vose said. “She has made a huge impact on our oncology clinical research program as it has grown and expanded for several decades.”
Blumel said this marked the beginning of a long-term commitment to clinical research, with only a brief 18-month hiatus in nursing development in 1998-99. During that time, Blumel worked with new nursing hires to develop orientation plans and address their needs.
But she missed the patient aspect of clinical research and returned to it.
“I love the atmosphere of a teaching hospital. The collaboration is outstanding,” she said. “The opportunities and what we do here are above and beyond, and it’s a lot of fun.”
Blumel soon will transition to a managerial position within the clinical trials office. She will supervise a team of approximately 20 nurses and study coordinators who are responsible for project management of clinical trials and the patients who participate in them.
“The trials span both outpatient and inpatient settings, primarily based in the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center but also covering satellite locations such as Village Pointe, Bellevue and the Kearney Cancer Center,” she said.
Blumel said the most rewarding part of her job is witnessing the success of new treatments. “Having a new novel treatment work in patients, and seeing that treatment succeed and eventually become approved by the FDA for use in the greater population, is the greatest reward,” she said.
“Cancer patients might respond well to a treatment, but it’s not always a cure and patients often experience multiple remissions and relapses, so we always need to have new options for them,” Blumel said. “Clinical trials offer new options when standard care options are exhausted, but they are not always last-ditch efforts. Trials are conducted for newly diagnosed patients, relapsed patients and include advanced therapies like CAR T-cell therapy.”
One nominator said Blumel’s work on the initial cellular therapy trials at UNMC led to the development of a plan and process for administration and care of our patients. “Now, CAR T-cell therapy is FDA approved for a number of different types of cancers. The systems that she put into place for those initial clinical trials continue to be the backbone of how cellular therapy patients are being cared for at Nebraska Medicine today.”
Throughout her career, Blumel has been influenced by two colleagues in particular: Dr. Vose, who hired her more than 30 years ago, and Maribeth Hohenstein, a colleague who started the same week. “We’ve worked together all this time and have grown and just figured things out together.”
Blumel said she is honored to receive the Gold U award and is grateful for her team’s efforts and dedication. “It does make me feel special. I also don’t like a lot of attention,” she said. “It’s not just my success, it’s because of my colleagues – the physicians, co-workers, the other coordinators and the Nebraska Medicine ancillary departments and teams. It’s everyone together.”