Overview
Fellowship Director
Teja Kapoor, MD
Dr. Teja Kapoor received her M.D. degree from New York Medical College and completed her Internal medicine residency training at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick NJ. She completed rheumatology fellowship at Columbia before joining faculty.
In 2017, she was appointed as the Associate Program Director for the Rheumatology Fellowship, and eventually promoted to Fellowship Program Director in 2023. Dr. Kapoor enhanced the fellowship education curriculum, including expanding the cadaver musculoskeletal-ultrasound curriculum, injection-clinics, board-review course, core curriculum lectures, close mentorship program for trainees, and fellows boot camp, while seamlessly integrating a well-being centered approach into trainee education.
She directly supervises Rheumatology fellows weekly in their outpatient clinics and inpatient consult services at Milstein Hospital and Allen Hospital. For several years, Dr. Kapoor was the Rheumatology elective director for medical students and residents. During this time, she received the Henry Lodge Primary Care Medical Education Award, which she utilized to develop a curriculum, “Rheumatology for Primary Care”, consisting of online lectures, summative handouts, inperson rheumatology physical exam workshops which are still being used today. She has been Co-course director of the Body in Health and Disease at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is also the co-moderator of Columbia Medicine Grand Rounds.
Dr. Kapoor brings an infectious enthusiasm for teaching that is an extension of her palpable passion for medicine. She brings a novel holistic approach to medical trainee education, expanding not only the rheumatology curriculum at the level of medical students, residents, and fellows, but with a focus on promoting the core well-being and humanistic growth of trainees to become well-rounded excellent physicians. For her significant contributions to teaching, she was awarded Ewig Clinical Scholar Award, Kimberg Junior Faculty Teaching Award, and inducted into Apgar Educator Academy.
Dr. Kapoor has lectured both at Columbia and internationally, in the topics of Lupus, Sjogren’s and autoimmune diseases. In addition to her teaching and clinical responsibilities, Dr. Kapoor is an active contributor and collaborator to the research mission of the Division. One area of her research is systemic lupus erythematosus, in which she has multiple publications in the field and Sjogren’s Disease, in which she is creating the Columbia Sjogren’s Center with an interdisciplinary team of experts.
Fellowship Associate Director
Nancyanne Schmidt, MD
Dr. Nancyanne Schmidt received her medical degree from Stony Brook University Medical Center and completed her internal medicine residency training at NYU Langone Medical Center. She then went on to complete rheumatology fellowship at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, prior to joining the faculty in 2021.
She was appointed Associate Program Director for the rheumatology fellowship in 2023. In that role she has expanded the fellowship education curriculum, including developing educational sessions on career development and physical exam skills. Dr. Schmidt is interested in developing innovative learning curricula for trainee medical education.
The Rheumatology Fellowship is a two-year clinical program with T32 sponsored options for additional years of research training. The primary goal of the program is to train physicians to be highly skilled consultants in rheumatology with demonstrated competencies in patient care, medical knowledge, professionalism, practice-based learning, and systems-based practice. The program’s emphasis on clinical experience, didactics, and research prepares fellows for their choice of career: clinical practitioner, clinician educator, or researcher. Columbia University Irving Medical Center has a diversity of top-notch, world-renowned resources that can be an invaluable part of the training experience.
The emphasis of the program's first year is on clinical proficiency; in the ensuing year(s) the focus is on clinical investigation or basic science research. A third and fourth year of research training is available through an NIH T32 award for qualified fellows who seek academic research careers.
During all years of the training program, fellows participate in regularly scheduled teaching exercises. These include a weekly conferences covering basic pathophysiology and clinical topics, journal club, and research conferences. Fellows also attend the lupus clinic, inflammatory arthritis clinic, and Faulkner General Arthritis Clinic on a weekly basis.
Other outpatient rotations include pediatric rheumatology clinic, dermatology clinic, EMG, and orthopedic clinics. We also have an ultrasound curriculum that is taught by our USSONAR trained faculty.
Download our Fellowship Handbook for more information about the rheumatology fellowship at Columbia.
Contact
Jordan Laib, MPA
Fellowship Coordinator
jl6988@cumc.columbia.edu