Dr. Alvin F. Wells, M.D., Ph.D., FACP, FACR
Dr. Wells is currently a practicing rheumatologist at the Advocate Aurora Medical Group in Franklin, Wisconsin, where he has served as the Director of the Department of Rheumatology in Wisconsin since July 2021. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He also maintains his clinical affiliation with Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC where he is an Adjunct Assistant Professor. Prior to returning to private practice, Dr. Wells was an Associate Medical Director at Abbott Laboratories where he played a central role in the launch of HUMIRA.
Dr. Wells received his MD from the University of South Florida, Tampa and trained in Internal Medicine and in Rheumatology at Duke University, where he was a faculty member before joining Abbott. He received his Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of South Carolina, where he developed an animal model for inflammatory eye disease. He was a recipient of the prestigious Fogarty Biomedical Research Award from the National Institutes of Health, which allowed him to undertake a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship at Uppsala University, in Uppsala, Sweden.
A member of the American Telemedicine Association, he has been a lead on the use of telemedicine in rheumatology and has authored peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on the topic. He is also a member of the American College of Rheumatology. Dr. Wells has over 25 years of research experience, focusing on chronic inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, with an emphasis on connective tissue components, inflammatory mediators, and cytokines. He is the recipient of the 2019 Outstanding Teaching Award from the Medical College of Wisconsin and Ascension St. Joseph Hospital. He is the recipient of the 2003 Abbott President’s Award. In 2001, he was honored with the Merck Young Investigator Award, and in 1999 he received the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Distinguished Alumni Award. Dr. Wells is fluent in Swedish and is an internationally renowned speaker and researcher and has had research support from the Arthritis Foundation and from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
