39th ISHLT Held in Orlando
Several Duke Heart team members attended the 39th annual International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation meeting and scientific sessions in Orlando this past week. The event took place from April 3-6 at the Loews Meeting Complex. Shown here are Carmelo Milano, MD, Sara Alexander NP, Miranda Flowers NP, Alicia Ploeger NP, Vincent Lee, NP. Carmelo Milano is seen providing a update on LVAD care.
Duke Heart Center’s Joe Rogers will be the ISHLT president in upcoming years. We also had several great presentations. Jacob Schroder presented the EXPAND Heart Trial and the FDA Approved US DCD protocol for the first time. This is the exciting perfusion system that keeps the heart perfused outside the body. It was associated with a low rate of graft dysfunction and can expand the regional donor pool. Duke Heart Fellow Lauren Truby also had her work highlighted by the Journal of Heart Lung Transplantation as some of the year’s most important. There were many more important presentations by CT surgery, CT Anesthesia, and a host of Duke Heart Faculty and Fellows.
AHA Quality and Outcomes Care meeting 2019
The AHA QCOR meeting was also held this last week and was lead by Adrian Hernandez and Tracy Wang in Duke Heart. This meeting highlighted many of the real-world advances ongoing in the implementation and improvement in care in Heart Care. The meeting has become the center of where outcomes research and innovation around how we capture clinical practice data and intervene to improve outcomes are presented. Amy Abernathy, former Duke Faculty, now with the FDA in charge of Real-World Data to inform our therapies and practice also presented.
Important Paper on TAVR and Operator Outcomes – In NEJM this week
Study lead by Sreek Vemulapalli and others from around the country
Clinical Kudos: David Manly
A big shout-out to cardiology fellow David Manly who was the subject of a warm letter of recognition from anesthesiologist Nate Waldron. While Waldron was the intensivist in the CTICU, one of their TAVR patients started having difficulty overnight. Manly was available to troubleshoot and, despite a busy caseload of his own, repeatedly checked on the patient throughout the night and engaged regularly with the CTICU team for follow ups during what proved to be a challenging set of issues.
Waldron stated, “I truly appreciate Dr. Manly’s help last night—especially considering that he was concomitantly managing his own busy service. One of the many benefits of working in the Heart Center is the tremendous collaboration between Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Anesthesia, and Cardiothoracic Surgery. Last night exemplified this collaborative spirit, and I am sincerely grateful for his help.” Great job, David! Exemplary teamwork all around.
Duke Sonographer Recognized as ASE Volunteer of the Month
Alicia Armor, one of our amazing Duke sonographers, has been recognized by the American Society of Echocardiography as their volunteer of the month. Outstanding! You can read about her efforts and why she volunteers with ASE here.
Shout-out to Drew Flammia
Special thanks to Dayle (Drew) Flammia, RN, for responding quickly and taking appropriate steps to rescue a federal prison guard who was on site to monitor a forensic patient. The story was shared with us by Heather McKinney, one of our nurse managers for 3100. She stated “A first responder had been activated to the patient’s room, where a federal prison guard had been choking and breathing with stridor. Flammia, who was the patients’ primary nurse, entered the room and performed the Heimlich maneuver on the guard until he stopped choking. “If he hadn’t been there so quickly, the guard may not have had the positive outcome that was made possible by Drew.” Excellent job!
Good catch award: Amanda Rooney, DMP 7E
Nice job, Amanda Rooney, RN, on 7 East in the DMP! She caught that a team member had not yet pulled up the needed medication at the time of dual-sign off/verification. Good that we have each other’s backs – way to go! Thank you again for living the Duke Values and helping us drive towards our goal of “Zero Harm.”
Upcoming Conference: Duke Heart participated and co-sponsors the Emory Cardiovascular Conference EPIC SEC coming up next month. Please consider attending if you can.
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