Rheumatology

Welcome to the division of rheumatology at Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) at Old Dominion University. We are a new academic division, established in 2023. Our providers are dedicated to delivering superior evidence-based medicine, educating non-rheumatology health care providers in all aspects of our specialty and optimizing patient care in our community and region.

We are the primary rheumatology referral center for Medicaid, Medicare and Veteran Administration patients in Hampton Roads, and are increasingly becoming the primary referral center for privately insured patients from Virginia and northern North Carolina whose physicians request timely assistance treating patients with rheumatic diseases. EVMS provides care for those reaching 18 years of age who previously received services at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, allowing us to transition patients with childhood rheumatic diseases. Moreover, we are the only rheumatologists who consult on patients admitted to Sentara Healthcare’s flagship hospital, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. 

Our goals

• Provide state-of-the-art, evidence-based patient care in a cost-effective, efficient manner.
• Deliver unequaled rheumatology education for medical students and residents.
• Serve as positive role models for medical students and residents thus attracting them to careers in rheumatology.
• Enable non-rheumatologists to recognize rheumatic disorders and provide them with the clinical skills to optimize the care of their patients.
• Foster critical thinking that advances the understanding and treatment of rheumatic diseases and stimulates the exchange of ideas intra and extramurally.

We strive to become a true academic division with future goals of adding a rheumatology training program and enhancing rheumatology knowledge through the development of a vigorous research program consisting of investigator-initiated projects, collaborations with other basic and clinical scientists and innovative therapy trials.

Our services

• Comprehensive diagnostic evaluations
• Joint and soft tissue aspirations and injections
• Joint fluid examination under polarizing microscopy
• Biologic, immunosuppressive and osteoporosis therapies

Conditions we treat include:

• Gout/pseudogout
• Inflammatory myopathy (polymyositis and dermatomyositis)
• Osteoarthritis
• Osteopenia/osteoporosis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Scleroderma
• Sjogren’s syndrome
• Spondyloarthropathies (ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn’s disease arthritis and ulcerative colitis arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis)
• Systemic lupus erythematosus
• Vasculitis

While chronic pain syndromes and genetic connective tissue disorders such as fibromyalgia and Ehler-Danlos syndrome are neither immunologic nor autoimmune, we evaluate these patients for underlying medical conditions which could contribute to their symptoms and provide treatment recommendations to their primary care providers.

We collaborate with many other specialties to optimize the care of non-rheumatologic patients by providing expertise with immunomodulators and immunosuppressants. These include but are not limited to ophthalmologists treating patients with inflammatory eye disease (including sarcoidosis), otolaryngologists with patients with autoimmune hearing loss, pulmonary providers with patients with interstitial lung disease and cardiologists caring for patients with pericarditis.

Because many of our patients have rheumatologic diseases which affect multiple organ systems, we partner with other specialists to optimize the care of our patients in a multidisciplinary fashion.

Our clinic

We provide outpatient appointments in the rheumatology clinic, located on the 4^th floor of Hofheimer Hall at:

825 Fairfax Avenue
Norfolk, VA 23507
phone: 757-446-8920
fax: 757-446-5924

All laboratory tests are drawn at our clinic and x-rays are performed across the street at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

Parking is available in Visitor Lot B and Visitor Garage A, designated by Parking (P) on the map.

There is a red "X" on the entrance to Hofheimer Hall and the entrance to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital's Kaufman Pavilion.

Clinic Rules designed to optimize the care in an effective efficient safe environment:

1. All patients require an initial referral from their provider which will be reviewed within 72 hours of its arrival. If it represents an appropriate rheumatology consultation, we will contact you with an appointment.
2. To optimize the care we deliver, we request you bring all your medication bottles and tubes to every appointment. This includes medications which are prescribed, are over the counter, taken daily or as needed, supplements, vitamins, minerals, creams and ointments so we can review them with you properly, enabling us to assist in preventing any medical errors.  A list is not adequate.
3. We require all patients, their family and friends to wear masks while in the examination room, which the clinic will provide. This is for your safety, as well as ours.
4. If your referring provider wants an urgent referral, please ask your provider to contact the clinic at 757-446-8920 or the Department of Medicine administrative office at 757-446-8910 to discuss the case with the rheumatologist on call.
5. We request the patients arrive 15 minutes early to complete any necessary paperwork.