Spotlight of the Month: Jason Weber, MD

This month we are spotlighting Jason Weber, MD, our 2014-2015 OFAC Fellow.  Ortrhopaedic residency is five years long, and most residents do a fellowship after graduating to further specialize in a certain field.  We are happy that Dr. Weber completed his fellowship at OFAC and disappointed that he will be leaving us in a few days to return to Nebraska (his home state).

Position: Fellow

Hometown: Dorchester, Nebraska

Has been with OFAC since: August 2014

Q: How did you get here?

A: I’ve known that I wanted to be a doctor since 5th grade.  We had to the write a report in library class.  The librarian asked who wanted to write about a physician, and I was like “What’s a physician?”  She responded that it was like a doctor, so I said, “oh sure, I’ll write about that.”

I became interested in OFAC because of the diverse number and types of cases that the office takes on.  I worked with Dr. Neufeld and Dr. Cuttica a lot when I was in residency and knew that they were great to work with.  My wife works on Capitol Hill, so it was nice for her to be able to work on The Hill for another year before we go back to Nebraska, which we always kind of thought we would do.

Q: What has been your favorite aspect of the fellowship?

A: Hanging out with the three attendings (attending physicians) in the operating room and in clinic.  I have had a lot of fun and still learned clinically in the office and also in the OR.

Q: What have you gained from the OFAC fellowship?

A: I think the ability to diagnose and treat common, and even uncommon, foot and ankle problems.  I’ve seen a wide breath of conditions in the office and have also performed a wide variety of surgeries.  I feel like there really isn’t a foot or ankle case that I wasn’t trained well on.   I’m prepared and feel confident that I can do a good job.   Before I even started the fellowship, I knew I was going back to Nebraska and the practice that I’m joining there wanted a foot and ankle surgeon, so this fellowship is helping me get from residency to that practice, which is great.

Q: What is the most exciting new development in the foot and ankle world?

A: Total ankle replacement is pretty exciting.  I think we can perform it on many more people now.  Dr. Cuttica, Neufeld, and Buchanan would all say that I was more of an ankle fusion person before I started [the fellowship], but I began seeing patients in follow up who were doing really well after getting a total ankle replacement.  They were just so grateful because they had such horrible pain before the surgery.  We don’t give them a normal ankle, but the patients are so much better than they were before.

Q: What is something that you want your patients to know?

A: I want patients to know that they can get confident and humble care.  I think patients should feel like the doctor knows what they’re doing, but, at the same time, is humble about it and takes their thoughts and feelings and emotions into account as well.