Duke Heart team members are attending the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions at the Philadelphia Convention Center in Philadelphia. Highlights have included the presidential address given earlier today by one or our own –  Robert Harrington; the annual Duke reception hosted by the Duke Clinical Research Institute and Duke Heart at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel on Saturday evening, as well as our faculty and fellows participating in numerous important research presentations including the several late breaking science.

Following the Duke reception, Tom Bashore was presented the Laennec Master Clinician Award by the American Heart Association. This honor is given annually in recognition of a lifetime achievement in patient care and teaching in cardiology. Congratulations, Tom!

As with most of the meetings – I am reminded by the tremendous impact that Duke has on our clinical and research communities.  It is present at the sessions – with the science, the interactions with leaders in the field, and of most notably with continuous work by our fellows.  The meeting had over 125 presentations or talks by Duke related people.  Included are some photos – intended to highlight the contributions of the Duke group.

Shout-out to Sipa Yankey

One of our cardiology fellows, Sipa Yankey, rescued a patient this week. A Duke employee lost consciousness in the hallway when Sipa happened to be walking by. Sipa was able to get the patient to the Duke University Hospital emergency department where he was found to be having a large inferoposterior MI. The cardiac catheterization lab team was activated; Sunil Rao and interventional fellow Jenn Rymer were able to stent the artery quickly. It was Sipa’s rapid triage that really saved the patient, according to Rao. We are happy to report that the patient is doing very well! Great teamwork, everyone!

 

DUCCS Leadership Transition

We are pleased to announce that Richard Krasuski will be taking on the role of the Director of the Duke University Cooperative Cardiovascular Society (DUCCS). Rich received his medical school degree from Harvard before completing internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He first came to Duke as a Cardiology fellow in 1997 and completed additional training in adult congenital heart disease. After several years on faculty at Cleveland Clinic, we were fortunate to recruit him back to Duke in 2015 as the Director of the Adult Congenital Heart Center. He has a busy clinical practice spanning a wide spectrum of heart problems from simple shunt lesions like patent foramen ovale to more complicated disorders, like tetralogy of Fallot, transposition of the great arteries and single ventricles. He is also heavily involved in the Center for Pulmonary Vascular Disease and initiated a program in balloon pulmonary angioplasty for thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. He has also been extensively involved in both clinical research and medical education here at Duke, nationally and internationally. In recent years, he has served as an active Board Member for DUCCS and he is very excited to take on this new leadership role.

We look forward to having Rich serve in this new role to further enhance the unique network and collaboration represented by the DUCCS membership.

We thank Robert Mentz who has served as the Director of DUCCS since joining the cardiology faculty in 2014. During his five years in this role, he has done a tremendous job enhancing the DUCCS program. His efforts were instrumental in key initiatives such as the Visiting Professor Program as well as the Big-Sib program where current fellows are paired with like-minded external mentors. The DUCCS network has been pivotal for fellows transitioning to their first faculty position and for continued networking throughout careers. The well-attended annual DUCCS dinners at AHA and ACC represent another cornerstone of the program. Moreover, the DUCCS clinical research network has continued to grow and was a leader enrolling in recent and ongoing trials such as TOPCAT, PROMISE, PRIME-HF and TRANSFORM-HF. Educational efforts have also grown significantly including the upcoming 20th Anniversary Andrew Wallace Cardiology Symposium scheduled for May 2, 2020 at the Washington Duke Inn. All are invited to join for this exciting upcoming symposium, which will feature many members of the DUCCS network highlighting key practice changing data across cardiovascular disease. We’re thrilled to announce that one of our keynote speakers for this symposium will be Dan Ariely, the well-known Duke behavioral economist made famous for his TED talks and three New York Times best-sellers (http://danariely.com/).

Finally, Rob has provided important leadership enhancing connections with the broad membership of DUCCS and striving to enhance membership diversity. We are grateful for the work he has done. Great job!

Use of Tracking Numbers on DukeHealth.org Heart Pages

Starting Wednesday, November 20, you may notice “new” phone numbers listed on some of our DukeHealth.org web pages. The Duke Health marketing team will begin using a tracking phone number on pages related to Duke Heart service locations and provider pages. The only listings that will be impacted will be those that use the Heart Center Communications phone number (919-681-5816). Please note that we are not discontinuing the HCC number or hub. It will still be an active phone number and all phone calls will still route to the Heart Center Communications team.

Use of the tracking number will allow the marketing team to match specific phone calls to website viewing sessions in order for them to get a better sense of what users are doing on the site prior to placing a call. This plan has already been implemented for Primary Care, Weight Loss Surgery and Urgent Care.

If you have any questions or concerns about this, please contact Tracey Koepke, Director of Communications at tracey.koepke@duke.edu or Greg Shelton at greg.shelton@duke.edu.

 

Duke Heart Holiday Party: Save the Date

Be sure to check your email (especially the “clutter” folder!) for your emailed invitation to the annual Duke Heart holiday party, which will be held December 6. Invitations were extended to all cardiology and CT surgery faculty, fellows and residents, as well as hospital clinical team leads and higher. Questions? Contact Tracey Koepke, Director of Communications. RSVPs are due by November 22.

 

Upcoming Opportunities/Save the Date:

Cardiology Grand Rounds

This week, on Tuesday, Nov. 19, we’ll hold a cardiology faculty meeting. Please join us!

Upcoming Grand Rounds:

• November 26: No Grand Rounds. Happy Thanksgiving!
• December 3: Zach Wegermann
• December 10: (5 p.m.) Heart Center Grand Rounds on CTEPH
• December 17: (5 p.m.) Faculty Staff Meeting
• December 24: No Grand Rounds. Happy Holidays!
• December 31: No Grand Rounds. Happy Holidays!

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:

November 8 — Mitchell Krucoff

tctMD/the heart beat

Conversations in Cardiology: Should Interventional Cardiologists Get Paid for Being On Call?

https://www.tctmd.com/news/conversations-cardiology-should-interventional-cardiologists-get-paid-being-call

 

November 8 — Renato Lopes

Medscape

‘Simple’ Way to Stop, Restart DOACs for Surgery in Patients With Atrial Fib

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/921015

 

November 12 — L. Kristin Newby

Medical News Today

Late evening eating may compromise women’s heart

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326990.php#1

 

November 14 — Ann Marie Navar

Healio/Cardiology Today

FDA panel unanimously supports CV event risk reduction indication for icosapent ethyl

http://bit.ly/2OhM9o2

 

November 14 — Thomas Ortel (Hematology)

MedPage Today

FDA Advisors All In on Vascepa for CV Risk Reduction

https://www.medpagetoday.com/cardiology/prevention/83352