James O’Dell, M.D., professor of medicine and chief of the section of rheumatology and immunology at UNMC, has written a review for the country’s most prestigious medical journal.
Unlike other published articles, this was by invitation.
The 4,000-word review, titled “Therapeutic Strategies for Rheumatoid Arthritis,” appears in today’s (June 17) issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The review looks at state-of-the-art treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, including the use of modifying disease drugs and biological products.
“I’m honored to have been asked,” Dr. O’Dell said. “Any rheumatologist would love to be writing the review. I owe this extraordinary opportunity to my many colleagues in the network and all of our patients with rheumatoid arthritis. They have made our studies possible.”
Writing the NEJM review on rheumatoid arthritis was no small feat. Once selected, the 18-month plus process included five levels of review, Dr. O’Dell said, including an international panel of reviewers, as well as editors at NEJM.
The journal regularly does comprehensive reviews, but highlights a given disease every seven to 10 years, or as warranted by medical advances. The reviews educate physicians about state-of-the-art treatment and management of a given disease. In the end, Dr. O’Dell’s 12-page review included 121 medical references.
“Jim O’Dell is one of our leading researchers in the College of Medicine,” said John Gollan, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the UNMC College of Medicine. “He has made major contributions in the field of rheumatoid arthritis and has been instrumental in establishing the RAIN (Rheumatoid Arthritis Investigators Network) network, which is a national multi-center program to study the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.”
Colleagues across the country said Dr. O’Dell was an obvious choice to author the review.
“It is no surprise to me that they have turned to Dr. O’Dell for their review of rheumatoid arthritis, since there is no more widely respected expert in this field,” said David Wofsy, M.D., president of the American College of Rheumatology. “Dr. O’Dell’s pioneering work in founding and leading the Rheumatoid Arthritis Investigators Network (RAIN) is very highly regarded and often imitated, because of its success in establishing a true university/community research collaboration, its independence and integrity, and most of all its important contributions to our knowledge about rheumatoid arthritis.”
Rheumatoid arthritis causes pain, stiffness, swelling and loss of function in the joints and inflammation in other body organs. The chronic disease affects more than 2 million Americans and usually strikes in middle age, often in the 20s and 30s. There is no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, so the goal of treatment is to achieve remissions or near remissions.
In 1989, Dr. O’Dell founded RAIN, a group of rheumatologists and nurse-study coordinators across Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois and California. The consortium’s goal is to bring rheumatologists at UNMC together with private practice rheumatologists who are interested in clinical study. The RAIN home office is at UNMC.
“The New England Journal of Medicine is one of the premier journals in the field of medicine,” said Michael Holers, chief of rheumatology at the University of Colorado. “That Dr. O’Dell has been asked to write a review of rheumatoid arthritis for this journal reflects his international reputation as a leader in research in this important autoimmune disease. The University of Nebraska is fortunate to have him as a faculty member.”
A native of Omaha, Dr. O’Dell also serves as the internal medicine residency program director and vice-chairman of the department of internal medicine at UNMC. He joined the UNMC faculty in 1984. Dr. O’Dell was a contributing author to the recently published “Cecil Textbook of Medicine, 22nd edition.”