Rebecca Weiner, D.O., CCOM Class of 2016

I grew up in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, and I completed my undergraduate education with a bachelor’s degree in community health at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. I have been very familiar with the osteopathic profession having grown up with my father being a D.O., graduating from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine (CCOM) in 1974.

 I was excited to continue carrying on the osteopathic tradition and honored to have attended Midwestern University’s CCOM where I graduated from the Downers Grove Campus in 2016. My dad, Glenn I. Weiner, D.O., is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at CCOM, where he has been teaching and having students rotate through core IM/Rheumatology electives with him for over 20 years. I had the unique opportunity of having him lecture to my CCOM class on several occasions (a very fond and proud memory). As a third-year medical student, I did an elective rotation in Rheumatology for one month, shadowing my father as my mentor, which only further cultivated my own interest in pursuing the sub-specialty and following in his footsteps.

 I completed my residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago (NorthShore) and was given the honor of an academic appointment for an additional year serving as a chief resident. Like my father, I always have had a passion for teaching and giving back to the CCOM community and had great experiences joining my father in didactic lectures to third- and fourth-year medical students on their core IM rotations. We did a “Weiner tag team approach” giving both lectures and arthrocentesis workshops in the simulation training center at Midwestern University.

 I then went on to complete my two-year fellowship training in the specialty of Rheumatology at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI, graduating in 2022. Upon the completion of my fellowship, I joined the practice of Northwest Rheumatology Specialists in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, which was started by my father in 1979. This is a private consulting practice in rheumatic diseases, which now has six rheumatologists. Our practice consults at three different hospitals and we evaluate and treat a wide variety of musculoskeletal and immunologic-mediated diseases. 

I have had the wonderful experience of working with my father and being mentored by a thorough and exceptional physician with over 40 years of experience. It has been inspiring, as well as fun, to discuss complex cases and learn from all of his years of experience.

 There are very few father-daughter rheumatologists in the U.S., and probably even fewer father-daughter rheumatology osteopathic physicians. We feel that our professional dynamic is a special scenario, and the fact that we have shared passions and shared educational experiences, and shared professional endeavors in the same practice is a unique and rewarding experience. We thank Midwestern University’s CCOM for our start in our medical journey and wanted to share our story with our fellow alumni.