Dr. Joseph Abell’s dedication to a patient-centered approach was evident from the moment he stepped into the exam room. “When he entered a patient’s room, he’d say, ‘Mrs. Jones, how can I help you today?’ Not ‘What brings you here?’ but ‘How can I help you?’ It was a very caring and patient-centered question,” his wife, Mary Abell, remembers.

Dr. Abell devoted nearly 50 years of service to the Austin community. He was an accomplished orthopaedic surgeon who had a passion for his patients as well as his profession. After completing his internship and residency at the University of Michigan, Dr. Abell moved to Texas in 1962 and established Austin Orthopaedic Clinic. He was an active member on the staffs of Brackenridge, Seton and St. David’s hospitals, serving as chief of service or committee chair. In 1998, he was named Physician of the Year and awarded the Gold-Headed Cane by the Travis County Medical Society. Throughout his career, he served as president of the Travis County Medical Society, Texas Orthopaedic Association and the Texas Medical Association Foundation Board of Trustees. He also enjoyed writing and was a talented author. Dr. Abell authored 59 publications and made 65 formal presentations in eight states and nine foreign countries.

Even with his many accomplishments, Dr. Abell’s chief concern was always the well-being of his patients. “The art of being a good and caring physician is beautiful to watch when it happens,” Mary says. “[Caring physicians] recognize that it’s a service profession. It’s a profession to help people, and Joe always did.”

In 2008, Dr. Abell was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a terminal neurodegenerative disease with no known cause or treatment. Dr. Abell continued to write extensively on health care issues during his illness, combining years of medical knowledge with his new experiences as a long-term patient. When the disease rendered him unable to use his hands, he persevered in his writing by using eye-gaze technology to record his thoughts one letter at a time. The articles he wrote during this time offer a humble, personal look into the patient experience while maintaining an in-depth scientific knowledge and quiet humor.

“Humility is an elusive virtue that we often ignore when we are enjoying good health and success, but humility is omnipresent in my present undignified state,” Dr. Abell wrote in one of his final articles. “If I have learned nothing else from my ALS experience, I have discovered that humor is the only effective treatment for this disease. Of this I am certain: my sense of humor will be the last thing to go.”

“It was a powerful article,” Mary says. “I still have doctors calling for a copy. Years later, people still come up to me and say, ‘That article meant so much to me, and I’ve kept it.’ I’m glad he could express those feelings in such a way that moved many.”

After his passing in 2011, Mary knew she wanted to honor him in a way that would extend his legacy of compassionate, patient-centered care for years to come. When she learned of the arrival of the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin, she considered how a gift to the medical school could shape a new generation of orthopaedic surgeons while honoring the decades of service her husband devoted to his patients.

“Joe spent the bulk of his career in Austin and Travis County. We had talked over the years how wonderful it would be if there was a medical school here associated with The University of Texas. Of course, that never happened in his lifetime, but it was something in the back of our minds,” she says.

Mary and her six children decided to help make that dream a reality and honor Dr. Abell’s legacy through a gift to Dell Medical School. “It was something the kids and I wanted to do to honor their dad permanently,” Mary says. Together, they established the Joseph Miles Abell Jr., MD, Clinical Fellowship in Orthopaedic Surgery at the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.

A fellowship is the period of specialty training physicians undergo after completing their residency programs. For medical students, the fellowship program they choose determines the path for the rest of their medical careers. The prestigious endowed Joseph Miles Abell Jr., MD, Clinical Fellowship in Orthopaedic Surgery is the first endowed clinical fellowship at the medical school and will support the training of orthopaedic surgeons for years to come.

“What intrigued me about the fellowship is that it’s a new person every year who takes the fellowship. Every year, somebody else is introduced to Joe’s legacy, and then they’ll be an Abell Fellow for the rest of their lives,” Mary says.

When Mary first met with Dr. Kevin Bozic, Chair of Surgery and Perioperative Care and a professor of orthopaedic surgery, she was impressed by his commitment to creating a training program focused on patient-centered care. “I see in Dr. Bozic a strength of academic purpose that reflects the opinion Joe had of the academic legends under whom he trained at the University of Michigan. I felt this fellowship would be a further validation of the strength of the academic program at UT. Teaching tenderness, as well as orthopaedic excellence, to these medical students is important,” she says.

Clay Johnston, inaugural dean of Dell Medical School, 2014-2021, looks forward to seeing what the future Abell Fellows can accomplish at Dell Med. “It’s a special honor to connect Dr. Abell’s legacy with the Dell Medical School’s future. His name and example provide powerful reminders of the impact we all can have improving health in this community and beyond,” he says.

Mary believes giving to the medical school is important because it allows people to be a part of something bigger than themselves. “For people in this community, I think we have an opportunity that is unprecedented — to be a part of the medical future of Travis County. It’s good to be a part of the future. Those opportunities are rare,” she says.

“If you have an opportunity to make a difference, do it.”

You can make a gift to the endowment honoring Dr. Abell.

Published May 2018