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Highlights of week ending July 21st 2019

ADAPTABLE Completes Enrollment

Congratulations to the Duke ADAPTABLE team — they have reached the end of enrollment with 15,076 participants signed on at 40 centers around the country. Duke’s enrollment reached 1,684 participants alone! Members of the Duke area recruitment team gathered on Tuesday evening at Rooftop to celebrate as a way to thank everyone who contributed.

Way to go, everyone!

 

Duke celebrates Project Baseline Health Study 

Duke recently kicked off the third year of Project Baseline Health Study, reaching the midpoint of enrollment as the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) began welcoming back participants for their third on-site visit in Durham and Kannapolis.

During the event, Svati Shah, principal investigator for the Duke site, thanked everyone who made the milestone possible. She offered special thanks to friends and partners at Duke Clinical Research Institute for a remarkable, ongoing collaboration.

In her remarks, Shah noted that Duke has contributed significant diversity to the study’s cohort — diversity in race, ethnicity, age, gender, and health and disease characteristics. Most importantly, she said, the Duke study team always keeps the participant first and foremost, and at the center of the entire process.

“The Duke Baseline study team has worked tirelessly to deliver a remarkable experience for every single participant,” Shah said. “Duke study leadership has demonstrated an unceasing commitment to excellence and scientific integrity. We hope to see incredible scientific breakthroughs come from Project Baseline, thanks to all of you.”

The study is the first initiative of Project Baseline, an ambitious effort to develop a well-defined “baseline” of human health, and a rich data platform to help researchers better understand health and disease and the transitions between them. Collaborators include Duke, Verily, Stanford Medicine and Google. Great job, everyone – keep up the great work!

 

Duke Heart Receives ELSO Award

We are very proud to announce Duke has received the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) Gold Level Center of Excellence Award! The ELSO Award for Excellence in Life Support recognizes Extracorporeal Life Support programs worldwide that distinguish themselves by having processes, procedures and systems in place that promote excellence and exceptional care in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. An ELSO Award signifies to patients and families a commitment to exceptional patient care and it demonstrates to the health care community an assurance of high quality standards, specialized equipment and supplies, defined patient protocols, and advanced education of all staff members.

 

Congratulations to our Extracorporeal Life Support team for the amazing work they do each day in caring for some of the most critically ill patients at Duke! We this this was a particularly fitting birthday gift for Desiree Bonadonna, our director of ELS, who celebrated a birthday on July 18. (Happy birthday, Desiree!)

 

Trevor Krawchuk Named Director, Duke Heart Network

We are pleased to welcome Trevor Krawchuk to the Duke Heart family! Krawchuk joined Duke on July 1 as the director of the Duke Heart Network (DHN).  He will be work closely with Amy Kessenich, senior director of the DHN, overseeing day-to-day operations.

Trevor comes to us with tremendous experience in business development and service line integration. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Radiology Services and an MBA from the University of South Dakota. He is active with the American College of Healthcare Executives and holds certifications as a Radiology Administrator (CRA) and American Registry of Radiology Technologists (ARRT). His most recent position was with Ascension Health in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as director of Hospital Based Care. Trevor and his wife have three children; he is originally from Canada.

Trevor was able to visit several heart care service areas on Friday morning along with Laurie Van Camp, associate clinical director, DHN. Thanks to Laura Dickerson for leading their tour!

 

Healing Hearts in Honduras: CT Surgery Sends Providers to Help

A group of care providers and trainees from Duke Heart’s CT Surgery team traveled to Tegucigalpa, Honduras last week to care for patients in need of heart surgery at the Instituto Nacional Cardio-Pulmonar, which has a waiting list of patients in need of heart valve replacement. This is the only public hospital in Honduras that can offer cardiac surgery. However, because resources are extremely limited, surgery can only be offered to patients when resources become available.

The Duke team traveled to Honduras with supplies and care providers to help meet this critical need – particularly for patients with rheumatic heart disease (RHD). Although Honduras lacks reliable data around the prevalence of certain diseases, RHD is endemic in neighboring Nicaragua, and patients with RHD are creating an overwhelming burden on physicians across Honduras.

Members of the Duke team included: Carmelo Milano, Adam Williams, Jorn Karhausen, J. Mauricio Del Rio, Jatin Anand, Alejandro Murillo Berlioz, Brian Gore, Caitlin Lofaro, Courtney Thurman, Fabian Jimenez Contreras, Joe Deblasio, Luz Cosalan-Munda, Michelle Figuerres, Sebastian Diaz, Rachael Knoll, Myra Ellis and Tiffney Locklear. (Apologies to anyone we may have missed on this list.)

We look forward to learning more about their trip when they return to the area! Special thanks to Tom Owens, president of Duke University Hospital; Jill Engel, Associate Vice President for Duke Heart Services; Peter K. Smith, chief of the Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery; and to the leadership of the Duke Department of Surgery for supporting this trip.

Foster Leaving Duke Heart

We are sad to report that Mike Foster will leave the Duke Heart team at the end of August. He has decided to launch a new adventure in Kenya and we wish him the very best. As many of you know, Mike has spent 20 years with our Clinical Diagnostic Unit and has distinguished himself as a leader and exceptional colleague who has made regular trips to Kenya on behalf of Duke to provide care at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.

In a note to the CDU staff this past week, Mike said, “Duke CDU is a really special place. What a pleasure to enjoy going to work every day. This has been my home and you (along with others from CDU past) have been my family. Thanks for making this a wonderful experience and setting me up to succeed in serving others elsewhere.”

He has done a great job as a leader by example focused on service, care, and fun. He will be missed here, but we know he will be making an even larger impact on the lives of people in Kenya. Mike, good luck on your next adventure! We look forward to hearing how you are doing.

He departs for Kenya on September 1.

 

Out & About: New Technology Committee, Echo Team

We’re not just about the clinical care of patients — many of our team members are working hard to ensure Duke stays at the forefront of technology by ensuring that some of the most advanced equipment and software is made available so that we can continue to provide effective heart care services as efficiently as possible. Many thanks to James Tcheng, Marat Fudim, Joe Kelly, Richard Walczak, and Peter Smith for taking time to present at the most recent meeting of the Duke New Technology Committee, which took place on Friday morning. Tcheng and Fudim presented on CardioMEMS; Smith, Kelly and Walczak presented on VIPER which is an integrated clinical workstation to provide state of the art perfusion and ECMO support in the operating room, ICU and in transport.

When our echo team doesn’t have an echo to do…our techs are learning about other parts of cardiology…not the latest posts on Facebook. Here are Jian Zhang and Alicia Scott taking an ECG review test. This is what we like to call a good use of time – nice job, Jian and Alicia! Many thanks to Mike Foster for the photo!

 

Have news to share?

If you have news to share with the Pulse readership, please contact Tracey Koepke, director of communications for Duke Heart at tracey.koepke@duke.edu. We would love to hear about your latest accomplishments, professional news, cool happenings, and any events or opportunities that may be of interest to our Duke Heart family. Please call with any questions: 919-681-2868. Feedback on Pulse is welcome and encouraged.

 

Duke Heart in the News:

July 11 — William Kraus

Inverse

Why Even Healthy People Can Benefit From Cutting Out 300 Calories per Day

https://www.inverse.com/article/57572-benefits-from-cutting-out-calories

July 11 — William Kraus

Daily Mail (UK)

Why skipping dessert may be good for you – even if you’re slim: Cutting 300 calories a day reduces heart disease, diabetes and dementia risks, study suggests

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7238643/Cutting-300-calories-day-reduces-heart-disease-diabetes-dementia-risks-study-suggests.html

July 11 — William Kraus

HealthDay News/WebMD

300 Fewer Calories a Day Brings a Health Benefit

https://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20190712/300-fewer-calories-a-day-brings-a-health-benefit

July 12 — William Kraus

Time magazine

Cutting Calories May Improve Your Health Even If You’re Not Trying to Lose Weight

https://time.com/5625306/cutting-calories-study/

July 12 — Sweta Sengupta (Duke Neurology)

Medscape

Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension May Double Cardiovascular Risk

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/915542?src=rss

July 15 — William Kraus

Thedoctorwillseeyounow.com

A Magic Metabolic Bullet

shorturl.at/krEX6

July 16 — William Kraus

The New York Times

Cutting 300 Calories a Day Shows Health Benefits

shorturl.at/oABIW

 

**In addition to coverage from last week and above, this story was also carried by CBS Radio, Medpage Today, Health.com and Atlanta Journal Constitution

July 17 — Jay Shavadia

Medscape

When Might Post-MI Beta-Blockers Be Safely Deprescribed?

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/915716


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