Drs. O’Dell to receive internal medicine lifetime achievement awards

Ask James O’Dell, MD, about his career at UNMC, and the first thing he mentions is his mentor Michael Sorrell, MD.

Ask David O’Dell, MD, about his UNMC career, and 10 words in, he is telling you about LeeRoy Meyer, MD.

Perhaps it is the attention they paid to their mentors, and the obvious affection both still feel for them, that helped the O’Dell brothers carve such impactful careers at UNMC themselves.

Both brothers have been so impactful, in fact, that on June 6, the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine will recognize Dr. James O’Dell with its Lifetime Achievement Award in Research, and, in a separate ceremony, bestow upon Dr. David O’Dell its Lifetime Achievement Award in Education.

“Jim and Dave O’Dell have had a remarkable, lasting, positive influence on the department of internal medicine, UNMC and the wider medical community,” said Mark Rupp, MD, interim chair of the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine. “Both are very deserving of the special lifetime achievement recognition they are receiving. We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have had both of them at UNMC, and I’m pleased they have been able to realize their career aspirations in the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine.

“Congratulations and bravo to the O’Dell brothers – they make us proud.”

The Lifetime Achievement Research Award, which highlights the recipient’s extensive scientific contributions at UNMC and nationally, has been given only four times. Past recipients are Stephen Rennard, MD (2020), Lynell Klassen, MD (2019), James Armitage, MD (2014), and Denham Harman, MD, PhD (2006).

The Lifetime Achievement Education Award has been given only once before, to Gerald “Jay” Moore, MD, in 2021.

Dr. James O’Dell’s research focus includes clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis and gout, clinical trial design, predicting response to therapy in RA and value-based care for RA. He developed a large clinical research network, the Rheumatoid Arthritis Investigational Network, that specialized in investigator-initiated clinical trials. He has won numerous awards.

Dr. David O’Dell’s educational resume includes multiple teaching awards, including the American College of Physicians’ Mastership and Dr. Jane F. Desforges Distinguished Teaching awards. Dr. O’Dell’s teaching encompasses a broad scope, including the classroom, small group settings, the clinic exam room and the inpatient bedside; he also served as the clerkship director for internal medicine for 27 years.

After recognizing their mentors, the O’Dells talked about one another.

“Jim has travelled the world, because he literally is one of the experts in the world in his area,” David said. “In addition to being internationally known, he has written the guidelines on the national level on how to take care of rheumatoid arthritis.”

“We come from a family of teachers, so it’s no surprise that Dave has excelled in teaching,” James said. “He was the first Educator Laureate Award winner at UNMC, and he was one of the first to have an ‘orchard,’ which is more than seven Golden Apples (teaching awards given by third- and fourth-year medical students). This means he can’t win anymore, so others can have a chance.”

When they had no option, they did talk about themselves – a little.

After beginning his career in basic research, Jim discovered his passion was more directly connected to patients and moved into clinical research.

“My experience in the laboratory, doing experiments, getting the data together and finding an answer for something nobody else had looked into before, that was pretty cool. But to take that to the patient level… The disease that I’ve been mostly studying for my career is rheumatoid arthritis. Today we can do things for patients we’ve never been able to do before. If you get rheumatoid arthritis today, you should have essentially a normal life. The average expectancy for your ability to work after you got rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis in the early 1980s was five years. We were able to make that impact because of research we did, largely through the RAIN network – find treatment strategies and promote effective drugs therapies.

“It’s been quite a ride.”

For David, medical education followed his move into medicine in what he sees as an organic evolution.

“If you really look at it, all physicians are teachers,” he said. “That’s important, to be able to explain to patients what’s going on. Making the decision to teach medical students, that had a lot to do with finding where I could use the skills I was given.

“Being able to assess someone’s kidneys, their heart, their lungs and integrate all – being competent in a wide range – is critically important for this generalist education that we’re building in medical students.

“I took a leadership course once, and they said, ‘You can motivate everyone for a while. But what you really want are people who are motivated internally.’ And I hope I’ve inspired that in my students.”

David said he hopes his students remember him as a “reasonable” role model.

“I hope that, as an educator, I’ve taught that you convey compassion for your patients, that you are a critical thinker, that you are willing to discuss challenging topics, and that, recognizing when you don’t know what you don’t know, that you may not know the answer, but you try to find it. It all starts with making sure that you’re taking care of your patients. Even as an educator, you got to be in the trenches. And you are a lifelong student – you have to be rooted in current medical practice, or you’re not going to be relevant.”

Jim hopes that the researchers he’s worked with and mentored choose to follow their passion.

“A lot of people in the research world, it can be difficult to get funded for your grants and to get your studies up and running. And of course, people talk about how difficult the times are now, and they are, but they’ve always been difficult. But at the end, if you aren’t following your passion, you’re not going to be very successful, and certainly you’re not going to be successful in your own mind. My passion has always been my patients. So, I’ve always tried to ask important questions from the patient’s perspective.

“It’s also incredibly important to build networks. Nobody’s going to do anything important in research, certainly clinical research, without networks. And networks are all about relationships, and relationships are really what makes the whole thing fun anyway.”

James O’Dell, MD, will receive the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Research on June 6 at internal medicine’s grand rounds at noon. Other awards will be bestowed, as well.

David O’Dell, MD, will receive the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Education on June 6 at the internal medicine residency banquet at 6 p.m. at the Livestock Exchange Building. Other awards also will be bestowed.

Maria Ball of UNMC Department of Internal Medicine communications contributed to this article.