Elizabeth Ross, DPT, MMSc, FAACH, receives AACH Fellowship Award

Elizabeth F Ross, Assist Consulting Professor, Department of Physical Therapy

We would like to congratulate Elizabeth Ross, DPT, MMSc, FAACH, who has received the AACH Fellowship Award. The Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare (AACH) honors publicly those of its members who make substantial contributions to the AACH mission by awarding to those individuals the honor of being designated a Fellow of the AACH (FAACH). Dr. Ross has been a member of the AACH for 12 years and counting.

The AACH is the professional home for all those who are committed to improving communication and relationships in healthcare. Continue reading

Highlights from the 31st Annual 2016 AOASM Meeting

FullSizeRender
This year, the 31st Annual 2016 AOASM Meeting was held in Tempe, Arizona. William Garrett Jr., MD, PhD; Blake Boggess, DO, FAOASM, FAAFP; Jeff Bytomski, DO; Greg Dale, PhD; Nick Potter, DPT, ATC, LAT, SCS, OCS; and Corina Martinez, PT, DPT, SCS, LAT, ATC, as well as a few former fellows, all participated in the May meeting.
Dr. Bytomski was the program chair and he did an incredible job. One of the founding fathers of the organization 31 years ago, Dr. Bob Adams, said that this was the best conference yet.

Dr. Garrett was the keynote and had everyone laughing and learning as usual!

Please enjoy photos taken at the conference below:

6th Vital Sign featured in The News & Observer

Screen Shot 2016-05-12 at 9.52.43 AM

Walking speed, tracked by new Duke app, can serve as health indicator

Reposted from The News & Observer

Announcing our Inaugural Combined Medical School – Orthopaedic Residency Program Students

IMG_2616

From left to right: Ben Alman, Tim Kreulen, Elshaday Belay, and Brian Brigman

We are delighted to announce that Tim Kreulen and Elshaday Belay were selected as the inaugural students in the combined medical school – orthopaedic residency program at Duke. They were selected following a rigorous process including an application, interviews, and observation on a mini-rotation on the orthopaedic service. Following their second year of medical school, they will begin a focused third year experience before entering orthopaedic residency training. The program has undergone several years of planning, with input from scores of individuals in the school, residency, as well as various regulatory bodies. Bill Hardaker was especially passionate about this program, and played a leadership role in it until his untimely passing.

Tim was born in Scranton, PA, and raised in nearby Clarks Summit. He studied chemistry at Duke University as an undergraduate. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, running, and going to the gym.

Elshaday is originally from Ethiopia but grew up in Houston, TX. He studied biochemistry as an undergraduate at Case Western Reserve University, where he also played soccer. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking and skiing.

Both Tim and Elshaday report that they are also avid Duke Basketball fans.

Please join us in welcoming Tim and Elshaday to our orthopaedic family, and thanking Brian and Fraser for all of their hard work in the implementation and selection process.

Aching joints in younger people may be early-onset arthritis

i4906842We would like to congratulate Virginia B. Kraus, MD, PhD, in the Basic and Translational Research section of the Department of Orthopaedics, who was featured in The Oakland Press for her research related to osteoarthritis.

Excerpt from “Aching joints in younger people may be early-onset arthritis” by Emily Sohn, Special to The Washington Post

Arthritis, which refers to joint inflammation, comes in many forms, including rheumatoid arthritis, gout and lupus. Overall, 1 in 5 adults in the United States have received an arthritis diagnosis — more than 52 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Osteoarthritis is by far the most common form, affecting at least 27 million Americans. The condition most often affects the spine, knees, hips and hands, says Virginia Krauss, a rheumatologist at the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C. But it can strike any joint in the body.

Read the full article here.

Samuel Adams, MD, selected to serve on the JBJS Associate Editor Panel

samuel-b.adams-jr.md_0We would like to congratulate Samuel Adams, MD, a member of the AOA Emerging Leaders Program, who was selected to serve on the JBJS Associate Editor Panel.

The AOA’s Emerging Leaders Program delivers a continuum of learning for developing orthopaedic leaders in their 5th year of residency up through their 13th year of clinical practice. Those who join are among a highly select group of orthopaedists poised to impact the specialty now and in the future. Emerging Leaders garner essential skills to build a strong foundation for leadership development and success. Identification for participation in the ELP is a mark of prestige.

Congratulations again to Dr. Adams!

Walking Speed Could Be a New Indicator of Health

Contact: Sarah Avery
Phone: 919-660-1306
Email: sarah.avery@duke.edu
https://www.dukehealth.org

Walking Speed Could Be a New Indicator of Health 
Smartphone study measures “6th Vital Sign” with a two-minute test

DURHAM, N.C. — Walking speed is making strides toward becoming a key metric of a person’s health with the launch of the 6th Vital Sign, a first-of-its kind study being conducted by the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI).

The Duke research team is asking volunteers to download a free ResearchKit app from the Apple iTunes store, answer some questions and then take a two-minute stroll. The app securely uploads walking speed captured on a phone along with demographic data to calculate a reliable and personalized health measure.

“Walking speed is recognized, yet underutilized, as a measure and predictor of a person’s health. It can be used as a vital sign much like blood pressure, temperature, heart and breathing rate and pain,” said study team leader Janet Prvu Bettger, ScD, an associate professor and director of health policy and implementation science in Duke’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Vital signs measure the body’s basic functions and should be easy to measure at home, in a hospital or at a health clinic. “Mobility, or a person’s ability to move, reflects the health of all of our body’s systems,” Bettger said. On the other hand, immobility impacts a person’s muscles, heart, digestive system, joints, and even mood.

“As a 6th Vital Sign, walking speed can be used to track a person’s recovery from illness or injury, declines in health, or even risks for falls, or depression,” Bettger said. “Among older adults we know that walking speed can even be used to predict survival.”

The 6th Vital Sign study is designed to:

  • Create walking speed norms based on mobile phone rather than clinic measures.
  • Develop walking speed comparison charts by age and gender for all adults (like height and weight charts).
  • Create maps of how walking speed varies by where people live.
  • Increase awareness of the importance of walking speed.
  • Make walking speed a vital sign used in homes, health care and communities around the globe.

“We are very excited by the possibilities of mobile apps such as the 6th Vital Sign to reach large cross-sections of the population and stimulate healthy behaviors,” said DCRI Executive Director Eric Peterson, M.D. “DCRI is committed to evaluating how we can use innovative mobile technologies in research as well as in promoting population health in general.”

To participate in the study, adults are being asked to download the 6th Vital Sign mobile app free from the iPhone Store, answer a few questions, and take a two-minute walk. Anyone living in the United States, over the age of 18, and with access to an iPhone 5s, 6, or 6 plus can join the study. (This is an iPhone-only and English language study at this time.) Participants will receive feedback on their walking performance compared to others their age and gender and can save or share their results. Participants can complete the walk test more than once and monitor their status over time to learn more about their own personal walking speed.

“We’re conducting this study because we don’t know enough about the walking speed across the human lifespan,” said Miriam Morey, Ph.D., a professor of medicine and senior fellow in the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development at Duke.

“As we get older, our systems start to decline and we have age-related declines that are normal,” Morey said. “However, we can influence the pace of this decline by how we take care of ourselves. Right now, we don’t routinely measure walking and strength so we don’t know what’s going on – or what we need to be doing. The 6th Vital Sign study examines a new approach to be measuring mobility.”

“This research app allows us to create new mobile-phone based standards and norms for walking speed for people, first around the U.S. and eventually around the world,” Bettger said. “The more people who participate in the study, the more representative our findings. This will help us create more accurate predictions of future health and measure-based action plans to promote health, recovery from an injury, and prevention of falls. And because smart phones are so common among people of all ages, there is a great potential to engage an unlimited population in research and create new knowledge for entire populations.”

About the Duke Clinical Research Institute

The DCRI is the largest academic research organization in the world, with a mission to develop and share knowledge that improves the care of patients and populations through innovative clinical research. The DCRI conducts groundbreaking multinational clinical trials, manages major national patient registries, and performs landmark outcomes research. This research spans multiple disciplines, from pediatrics to geriatrics, primary care to subspecialty medicine, and genomics to proteomics. The 6th Vital Sign study was sponsored by the DCRI and represents a collaborative effort among the DCRI, and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Divisions of Cardiology and Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine, and the School of Nursing at Duke.

Janet Bettger, ScD, featured on Duke’s “Ideas That Move the World Forward”

Janet Bettger, ScD, is an associate professor and health services researcher with Duke’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Duke Clinical Research Institute, and Duke Global Health Institute. She is a fellow of the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development and the American Heart Association.

Her research is dedicated to improving health and health care particularly for people at risk for functional decline or living with disabilities. With funding from government agencies, industry, and foundations, she leads research teams to compare the effectiveness of different health care service and delivery models, and implement evidence-based approaches to care. Her research in the United States on reducing disability after a stroke is being evaluated in several studies in low- and middle-income countries.

Bettger collaborates with a diverse group of patients, health care providers, government officials, and community leaders to globally address aging and disabilities with meaningful public health and health care innovations.