Chief’s message: Changing residents and fellows

Each year in July, the change of the Academic Calendar we say good bye to our graduating fellows and residents and welcome in our newly starting residents and fellows.  This upcoming week holds that excitement on the clinical wards as we go into July 4^th.  I have always found the transition to be both bittersweet – saying by to some that have spent somewhere between 4-9 years at Duke, while embracing the excitement of teaching and workin with the next generation of medicine and cardiovascular medicine leaders.  The end of the Academic year also allows for reflection on our accomplishments, and we continue that series with an update from our Interventional Labs by Schuyler Jones this week.

Highlights of the week:

Heart Highlights: Duke Interventional Cardiology

We are pleased to offer an update on our Interventional Cardiology team from Schuyler Jones as we continue to celebrate the accomplishments our team has made over the past year:

The Duke Interventional Cardiology team has continued to stay busy as we work to fulfill the tripartite mission, support Duke University Health System, and take care of ourselves, our patients, and our partners. COVID-19 was an especially challenging time in the Cath Lab, as reports from all over the world made us think differently about how we deliver care to patients with heart disease. We held true to our beliefs that we should not change how we approach patient care, and we worked diligently with our operational and nursing teams to ensure that we all had the appropriate personal protective equipment and created adjunctive processes that ensured the safety of our patients, staff, fellows, and faculty. Special thanks to Anna Mall (Clinical Lead) for her work with donning and doffing practice, training of staff, and overall coordination of care during the pandemic – there was a period when Anna was on call to come in for emergency procedures almost every night.

The Interventional Cardiology Fellowship is the life blood of our Cath Lab, and this year, the four fellows – Adam Banks, Jaidip Chakravartti, Angela Lowenstern, and Michael Nanna – really rose to the challenge. Maintaining an affable and steady approach, this team worked together to take care of some of the sickest patients in the hospital. They learned, they taught, and they did it as a team, and honestly, we couldn’t be more proud of this group as they all finish their training and move on to start their careers.

• Adam will be moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he will be doing coronary and structural interventional procedures alongside former Duke fellow, Sharif Halim.
• Jaidip will be starting his practice in Portland, Maine where he will be a coronary and peripheral interventionalist in a practice with former Dukie, Ed Sze.
• Angela is moving to Nashville, Tennessee where she will join the Vanderbilt University faculty and perform coronary and structural interventions.
• Finally, Mike will be moving back to New Haven, Connecticut where he did his residency and joining the Yale University faculty to focus on research and perform coronary and peripheral interventions.

Huge congratulations to this outstanding group!

More so than most sections, our faculty and fellows are highly dependent on our nurses and staff members in the Cath Lab to stay up-to-date on devices and procedures, provide critical care services to patients needing urgent or emergent procedures, and to work in an environment that is both complex and (at times) extremely stressful. Our fearless leaders—Elizabeth Watts, Tara Bass, and Anna Mall—helped run the Cath Lab and Cardiovascular Short Stay Unit masterfully and they have maintained full staffing during this difficult year. This partnership has remained strong, and while we know that our fellows and staff will transition frequently, having a solid leadership team makes a huge difference and we appreciate their work and all the work of our nurses, techs, and other staff members. We also want to recognize the efforts of our APP colleagues who evaluate and treat our patients in the CVSSU and on the cardiology ward – we’re excited to continue this partnership with Paige Rossman and Tiffany McEwen, among others.

Our site-based research team, including Stephanie Newbold, Mary Beth Summers, Jennifer Andrews, Jessica Ashworth, Inneke (Nikki) Johnson, Chris Pruitt, Krista Camuglia, and Cynthia Pierce have continued to do great work. Like many of our groups within the Heart Center Clinical Research Unit, our team worked from home during a large part of the last academic year. We are gearing up to resume full-time, in-person recruitment for studies involving TAVR, HOCM, coronary stents, acute coronary syndrome, and heart failure hemodynamics and new devices. Great work everyone.

We have 24 faculty members who take care of patients and do procedures in the Duke University Cath Lab, and we have two new faculty members that I would like to highlight:

• Jennifer Rymer – Jenn joined our faculty after completing residency, chief residency, cardiology fellowship (and being chief fellow), and interventional cardiology fellowship at Duke. She splits her time between seeing patients and doing coronary/vascular procedures at Duke Hospital and Mariah Parham Hospital and doing clinical research at the DCRI. Her enthusiasm for cardiology and work product are truly impressive, and we are incredibly happy to have her on our Cath Lab faculty.  Jenn is one of five international winners of the women as one escalator award for your early career contributions to the field.  Winners are awarded $50,000 in support of an approved research project, participation in networking events, and attend quarterly online research mentorship meetings with field leaders and previous Escalator Award winners.
• Marat Fudim – Marat’s primary appointment is within Heart Failure, but his focus on hemodynamics and new devices has led to him spending some of his time in the Cath Lab. We expect Marat to continue to expand the hemodynamic investigation of patients with suspected or confirmed heart failure and focus on early phase device and diagnostic modalities. Marat was awarded the 2021 Zipes Award from the American College of Cardiology at this year’s Scientific Sessions. His zest for new knowledge and to try new things (including devices and procedures) are exciting, and we’re happy to partner with him in the Cath Lab.

 

As an interventional cardiology faculty, we have continued to improve our delivery and coordination of care, fellow education, and research opportunities. Some examples include:

• Duke Heart Team: As a group, we consistently meet every Tuesday morning at 6:30am (in-person and webex) to review patient care decisions and angiograms; this meeting has served as an example of the close partnership we have in Duke Heart among cardiologists, interventional cardiologists, and cardiac surgeons.
• Duke TAVR Team: This team meets every Friday morning at 6:30am (typically in-person) to review imaging tests (echos, CTAs, angiograms) and discuss the most appropriate management for high-risk patients with aortic valve disease, concomitant coronary disease, and other valvular problems. TAVR procedures continue to be done in the hybrid OR and multiple Duke Heart partners offer this service including cardiologists (Kevin Harrison, Todd Kiefer, and Andrew Wang) and cardiac surgeons (Chad Hughes, Jeff Gaca, Adam Williams, and Ryan Plichta). This team has performed >250 TAVR procedures over the last year. Special thanks to Edana Christy (valve coordinator), Lynne Koweek (chest radiology), and our Cath Lab and OR staff for the excellent work and collaboration.
• Chronic total occlusions: Izzy Othman has continued to offer and perform complex procedures to recanalize chronic total occlusions of the coronary arteries. Typically, ischemia/viability testing is used to determine the appropriateness for these higher risk procedures, and Izzy has been able to draw referrals from our Duke Heart practices and from all over the state. Great work, Izzy!
• MitraClip: Andrew Wang continues to develop and expand the MitraClip program at Duke, using data that he and others collected and published from the COAPT study and registry. Andrew performs these procedures with the help of our Echo/TEE partners and Duke Anesthesia, and he has availability on most Tuesdays to coordinate and complete these procedures.
• Coronary/peripheral revascularization: As I describe below, the expansion of coronary and peripheral revascularization continues in the community and this has meant that we do fewer coronary interventions in Duke North Hospital. But that also means that our faculty members take on more complex and high-risk procedures for patients with multivessel CAD, more challenging anatomy, cardiogenic shock, and other conditions – and our Heart Team approach is one that we’re very proud of. Our group of vascular interventionalists (Manesh Patel, Larry Crawford, Tony Gutierrez, Jenn Rymer, Raj Swaminathan, Raj Swamy, Schuyler Jones) also continue to be active and often collaborate with our Vascular Surgery partners who do procedures alongside us in the Duke Cath Lab (Kevin Southerland, Chandler Long, Mitch Cox, Zach Williams).
• Adult Congential: Rich Krasuski has developed a niche for complex congenital procedures, as well as for ASD/PFO closures and pulmonary angioplasty for CTEPH.
• Quality improvement work: As he has done for the past few decades, Jimmy Tcheng has led our quality improvement efforts in the Cath Lab. Partnering with multiple hospitals (including many Duke Lifepoint hospitals), Jimmy leads M&M conferences, cine reviews, and QI projects in many states and most of North Carolina.
• Diagnostic fellow education: Tom Bashore continues to teach our diagnostic and interventional fellows about hemodynamics, radiation safety, and other aspects of diagnostic catheterization. I don’t know what we’ll do when Bashore retires, but I have a feeling that our group including Todd Kiefer, Mike Sketch, and Tom Gehrig will step in to fill that gap.
• Our faculty members continue to do great work at Duke University Hospital, but I would be remiss not to mention the great interventional cardiology work at other centers including Duke Regional (Matt Brennan, Stew Jones, Mike Komada), Duke Raleigh (James Mills, Mark Leithe), Alamance Regional (Dwayne Callwood, Alex Parachos, Ken Fath, Bruce Kowalski), Sovah Danville (Bosh Zakhary, Kevin Lingle, Brian Zagol, David Kotlaba), Lumberton (Bill Herzog), Sanford/Central Carolina Hospital (Rajiv Swamy), Wake Med Cary (Manesh Patel, Izzy Othman, Tom Gehrig), Henderson/Mariah Parham Hospital (Syd Short, Jennifer Rymer, Tony Gutierrez, Manesh Patel, Rajesh Swaminathan, Schuyler Jones), and the Durham VA Medical Center (Sunil Rao, Rajesh Swaminathan, Tony Gutierrez, Tom Povsic, Mitch Krucoff).

On the research side, a number of faculty have led important clinical trial and outcomes research projects. To my best count, the faculty have published 250 manuscripts (collectively) over the past 12 months in high-impact journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, European Heart Journal, and JAMA Cardiology. Impressively, 75% of our faculty have published this year, with many publications involving multiple members of the Duke Cath Lab team. I have highlighted a few – the first 6 publications represent studies where we enrolled patients at Duke and our faculty had key leadership roles and/or were included on the main/subsequent publications:

• Rivaroxaban in Peripheral Artery Disease after Revascularization. Bonaca MP, Bauersachs RM, Anand SS, Debus ES, Nehler MR, Patel MR, Fanelli F, Capell WH, Diao L, Jaeger N, Hess CN, Pap AF, Kittelson JM, Gudz I, Mátyás L, Krievins DK, Diaz R, Brodmann M, Muehlhofer E, Haskell LP, Berkowitz SD, Hiatt WR. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(21):1994-2004. PMID: 32222135
• Intracoronary ALLogeneic heart STem cells to Achieve myocardial Regeneration (ALLSTAR): a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded trial. Makkar RR, Kereiakes DJ, Aguirre F, Kowalchuk G, Chakravarty T, Malliaras K, Francis GS, Povsic TJ, Schatz R, Traverse JH, Pogoda JM, Smith RR, Marbán L, Ascheim DD, Ostovaneh MR, Lima JAC, DeMaria A, Marbán E, Henry TD. Eur Heart J. 2020;41(36):3451-3458. PMID: 32749459
• Mavacamten for treatment of symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (EXPLORER-HCM): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial. Olivotto I, Oreziak A, Barriales-Villa R, Abraham TP, Masri A, Garcia-Pavia P, Saberi S, Lakdawala NK, Wheeler MT, Owens A, Kubanek M, Wojakowski W, Jensen MK, Gimeno-Blanes J, Afshar K, Myers J, Hegde SM, Solomon SD, Sehnert AJ, Zhang D, Li W, Bhattacharya M, Edelberg JM, Waldman CB, Lester SJ, Wang A, Ho CY, Jacoby D; EXPLORER-HCM study investigators. Lancet. 2020;396(10253):759-769. PMID: 32871100
• Five-Year Clinical and Quality of Life Outcomes From the CoreValve US Pivotal Extreme Risk Trial. Arnold SV, Petrossian G, Reardon MJ, Kleiman NS, Yakubov SJ, Wang K, Hermiller J Jr, Harrison JK, Deeb GM, Huang J, Cohen DJ; US CoreValve Investigators. Circ Cardiovasc Interv. 2021 (online ahead of print). PMID: 34092091
• Splanchnic Nerve Block for Chronic Heart Failure. Fudim M, Boortz-Marx RL, Ganesh A, DeVore AD, Patel CB, Rogers JG, Coburn A, Johnson I, Paul A, Coyne BJ, Rao SV, Gutierrez JA, Kiefer TL, Kong DF, Green CL, Jones WS, Felker GM, Hernandez AF, Patel MR. JACC Heart Fail. 2020;8(9):742-752. PMID: 32535123
• Comparative Effectiveness of Aspirin Dosing in Cardiovascular Disease. Jones WS, Mulder H, Wruck LM, Pencina MJ, Kripalani S, Muñoz D, Crenshaw DL, Effron MB, Re RN, Gupta K, Anderson RD, Pepine CJ, Handberg EM, Manning BR, Jain SK, Girotra S, Riley D, DeWalt DA, Whittle J, Goldberg YH, Roger VL, Hess R, Benziger CP, Farrehi P, Zhou L, Ford DE, Haynes K, VanWormer JJ, Knowlton KU, Kraschnewski JL, Polonsky TS, Fintel DJ, Ahmad FS, McClay JC, Campbell JR, Bell DS, Fonarow GC, Bradley SM, Paranjape A, Roe MT, Robertson HR, Curtis LH, Sharlow AG, Berdan LG, Hammill BG, Harris DF, Qualls LG, Marquis-Gravel G, Modrow MF, Marcus GM, Carton TW, Nauman E, Waitman LR, Kho AN, Shenkman EA, McTigue KM, Kaushal R, Masoudi FA, Antman EM, Davidson DR, Edgley K, Merritt JG, Brown LS, Zemon DN, McCormick TE 3rd, Alikhaani JD, Gregoire KC, Rothman RL, Harrington RA, Hernandez AF; ADAPTABLE Team. N Engl J Med. 2021;384(21):1981-1990. PMID: 33999548
• In-Hospital Outcomes and Discharge Medication Use Among Patients With Critical Limb Ischemia Versus Claudication. Rymer JA, Kennedy KF, Lowenstern AM, Secemsky EA, Tsai TT, Aronow HD, Prasad A, Gray B, Armstrong EJ, Rosenfield K, Shishehbor MH, Jones WS. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2020 Feb 18;75(6):704-706. PMID: 32057381
• Survival and Causes of Death Among Veterans With Lower Extremity Revascularization With Paclitaxel-Coated Devices: Insights From the Veterans Health Administration. Gutierrez JA, Rao SV, Jones WS, Secemsky EA, Aday AW, Gu L, Schulteis RD, Krucoff MW, White R, Armstrong EJ, Banerjee S, Tsai S, Patel MR, Swaminathan RV. J Am Heart Assoc. 2021;10(4):e018149. PMID: 33554613
• Characteristics and Outcomes of Patients With History of CABG Undergoing Cardiac Catheterization Via the Radial Versus Femoral Approach. Manly DA, Karrowni W, Rymer JA, Kaltenbach LA, Swaminathan RV, Messenger JC, Abbott JD, Seto A, Panetta C, Brilakis E, Nikolakopoulos I, Gilchrist IC, Kaul P, Dakik H, Rao SV. JACC Cardiovasc Interv. 2021;14(8):907-916. PMID: 33812824

 

Overall, we’re incredibly proud of the work we do in the Duke Interventional Cardiology section, and we are excited to expand our services throughout North Carolina. Really excellent work everyone!

 

Year-End Celebration for Interventional & Structural Heart Fellowship Programs

Our graduating structural heart fellow and three interventional fellows were celebrated in downtown Durham on Thursday evening at The Roof restaurant at The Durham hotel. Congratulations to Angela Lowenstern, who completed the Structural Heart Disease Fellowship Training program; and to Adam Banks, Jaidip Chakravartti and Mike Nanna who have completed the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Training program. (See additional highlights from Schuyler Jones, above)

The Warren S. and Gloria R. Newman Fellowship in Cardiology award established in Honor of Robert H. “Jess” Peter, MD, was awarded to Adam Banks. Congratulations, Adam!

Best wishes to each of them as they embark on their new positions! Congratulations!

 

McDermott Earns DNP at Hopkins

Congratulations to Jaime McDermott, cardiology nurse practitioner, for completing her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree with Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in May. Her DNP capstone project, Improving Advanced Practice Provider Knowledge and Screening of Medication Adherence in Cardiovascular Patients received the JHU Doctor of Nursing Practice Executive Track program award for greatest clinical impact!

McDermott began the JHU program in 2017 before relocating to Durham, NC for a nursing position at Duke Heart in 2018. She took time off from the program to settle into her new role here at Duke before rejoining the program in January 2020.

She worked closely with Jill Engel and Bradi Granger – both of whom hold DNP degrees — to map out a doctoral capstone project. In September of 2020, Jaime successfully designed a medication adherence screening tool and an educational program for APPs. When the project wrapped up two months later, data showed that by having the APPs use the screening tool in the electronic health record, screening for medication adherence increased from 3.7% to over 73%.

“Jaime is such a tremendous cardiology APP provider and Duke Heart team member,” says Jill Engel, associate vice president of Duke Heart Services. “Her capstone project exemplified what a QI DNP capstone project should look like. She was masterful in her execution and positively impacted Duke Heart patients and the provider team. Dr. Bradi Granger was a tremendous asset, as always, in the academic partnership with the Johns Hopkins faculty. People like Jaime and Bradi make Duke Heart the great place it is.”

Congratulations Dr. McDermott!

PHASeR Team Earns FHIT Award

Congratulations to Deepak Voora and his research team! Voora leads the Pharmacogenomics program at the VA called PHarmacogenomics Action for Cancer Survivorship (PHASeR) — and they just won a 2021 Federal Health IT Award!

Awardees were celebrated this past week during the 7^th Annual FedHealthIT Innovation Awards, an event that recognizes and honors the Federal Health technology and consulting community by celebrating the programs nominated and selected by their peers for driving innovation and results across the Department of Veterans Affairs, Military Health, Health and Human Services, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

PHASeR is a clinical program bringing preemptive pharmacogenetic testing to up to 250,000 Veterans across the VA system. Congratulations, Deepak!

 

Patient Compliment for Heart Valve Replacement Team & Support Staff

We received a note this week from Lisa Clark Pickett, Chief Medical Officer for Duke University Hospital with a compliment for some of our Duke Heart team members:

“Good Morning, I was just delighted to read this lovely compliment about your team on our Patient Satisfaction survey.  I wanted to share so that you can enjoy the good words and convey to your team at huddle, etc.! Best wishes, Lisa

“During my week’s visit, I was impressed by the entire staff of the hospital, from the doctors and nurses to the food service, sanitation, and other support groups. Everyone I encountered was friendly, helpful, respectful, caring, professional, and inspired confidence that my decision to go to Duke University Hospital for my heart valve repair surgery was the correct choice.” — Name withheld for privacy

Great job, team!

 

Kudos to Pena!

I just wanted to give a shout out to Heather Pena who just obtained official certification in patient safety (CPPS). Kudos to her and all the work she does in support of the Heart Center. She is a great asset to Heart Services and the DUH SSA group, always sharing great insights and best practices. It is always a pleasure working with Heather and I am excited she reached this achievement. — Submitted by Kara Lyven, MBA, CPPS, Executive Director, Patient Safety, Duke University Hospital

Congratulations, Heather!!

Duke Health: Change Passwords; New Policy

Good news, Duke has updated its password policy! Why is this good news? Duke Health users and sponsored guests must update passwords as soon as possible, but will not be required to change passwords in the future – unless you want to update or your password is compromised.

The new password policy removes the requirement to update passwords every 180 days and requires passwords to be at least 12 characters (special characters and numbers are no longer required); however, including special characters creates a stronger password. In addition, the option to update passwords using CTRL+ALT+DEL is no longer available.

Team members can update their passwords now, but will receive a notice from DHTS via email that requires passwords to be changed by a deadline. Please visit the OIT Account Self Service Portal and create a new NetID password that doesn’t expire.

Tip: If working remotely (at a non-Duke site) users should connect to the Duke Virtual Private Network (VPN) before updating passwords (see page 29 of the Technology Toolkit for more information about the VPN). Passwords can be updated without connecting to the VPN, but passwords are synced across all your Duke log-ins faster if connected to the VPN.

Visit https://security.duke.edu/news-alerts/new-password-policy to review the password policy FAQ.

Attention Omnicell Users

Due to Omnicell’s password policy, Duke Health employees that use Omnicell, with the exception of Duke Raleigh Hospital employees, must keep passwords to 15 characters or less; Duke Raleigh Hospital employees must keep passwords to a maximum of 30 characters.

We are working with Omnicell to upgrade their password policy to remove restrictions across Duke Health. Check the password policy information page for updates.

Contact the Duke Health Service Desk at (919) 684-2243 for technical support.

 

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:

June 10 — Harry Severance

VN Express

Seven-day quarantine for fully vaccinated foreigners feasible: experts

https://bit.ly/3d1ZEp3

June 16 — Christopher Granger and Sean Pokorney

Physician’s Weekly

DOAC Reversal Agents Tied to High Bleeding Risk

https://bit.ly/3gM5MTk

June 18 — Michael Carboni (pediatric cardiology)

WSOC-TV (Charlotte)

CDC investigating possible link between mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and heart inflammation

https://bit.ly/3wQYTa8

June 18 — Manesh Patel

tctMD

Unseen and Unheard: In the Cath Lab, Anti-racism Efforts Fall Short

https://bit.ly/3wTKavc

June 22 — Myra Ellis

Physician’s Weekly

New Protocol Aims for Early Extubation in Cardiac Surgery Patients

https://bit.ly/35JwnLM

June 22 — Manesh Patel

WNCN/CBS17.com

Triangle hospitals see a handful of potential heart inflammation cases in COVID-19 vaccine recipients

https://bit.ly/3wUQd2t

June 23 — Renato Lopes

Medscape

No Benefit to Therapeutic Oral Anticoagulation in COVID-19 Hospitalizations

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/953573?src=

June 24 — Sunil Rao

Medscape

Could the Surgisphere Lancet and NEJM Retractions Debacle Happen Again?

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/953653

Division of Cardiology Publications Indexed in PubMed June 19-23, 2021

Boshara A, Patel A, Alasaad M, Dutcheshen KJ, LaLonde TA, Schreiber TL, Mehta RH, Kaki A, Rosman HS. Cardiogenic Shock Complicating Acute Myocardial Infarction Treated With Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Supported by Impella: Implications of Advanced Age and Refractory Shock on Outcomes. Crit Care Explor 2021;3(6):e0447. PM: 34136823.

de Boer RA, Aboumsallem JP, Bracun V, Leedy D, Cheng R, Patel S, Rayan D, Zaharova S, Rymer J, Kwan JM, Levenson J, Ronco C, Thavendiranathan P, Brown SA. A new classification of cardio-oncology syndromes. Cardiooncology 2021;7(1):24. PM: 34154667.

Dungan JR, Qin X, Hurdle M, Haynes CS, Hauser ER, Kraus WE. Genome-Wide Variants Associated With Longitudinal Survival Outcomes Among Individuals With Coronary Artery Disease. Front Genet 2021;12:661497. PM: 34140969.

Granger CB, Pokorney SD. Preventing and Managing Bleeding With Anticoagulation for Atrial Fibrillation. J Am Coll Cardiol 2021;77(24):3002-3004. PM: 34140102.

Hess CN, Cannon CP, Beckman JA, Goodney PP, Patel MR, Hiatt WR, Mues KE, Orroth KK, Shannon E, Bonaca MP. Effectiveness of Blood Lipid Management in Patients With Peripheral Artery Disease. J Am Coll Cardiol 2021;77(24):3016-3027. PM: 34140105.

Lowenstern A, Li S, Navar AM, Virani SS, Roger VL, Robinson JG, Goldberg AC, Kampman W, Peterson ED, Wang TY. Patient perceptions and use of non-statin lipid lowering therapy among patients with or at risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: Insights from the PALM registry. Clin Cardiol 2021;44(6):863-870. PM: 34008247.

Meyersohn NM, Mayrhofer T, Corey KE, Bittner DO, Staziaki PV, Szilveszter B, Hallett T, Lu MT, Puchner SB, Simon TG, Foldyna B, Voora D, Ginsburg GS, Douglas PS, Hoffmann U, Ferencik M. Association of Hepatic Steatosis With Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events, Independent of Coronary Artery Disease. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2021;19(7):1480-1488. PM: 32707340.

Nachun D, Lu AT, Bick AG, Natarajan P, Weinstock J, Szeto MD, Kathiresan S, Abecasis G, Taylor KD, Guo X, Tracy R, Durda P, Liu Y, Johnson C, Rich SS, Van Den Berg D, Laurie C, Blackwell T, Papanicolaou GJ, Correa A, Raffield LM, Johnson AD, Murabito J, et al. Clonal hematopoiesis associated with epigenetic aging and clinical outcomes. Aging Cell 2021;20(6):e13366. PM: 34050697.

Serfas JD, Thibault D, Andersen ND, Chiswell K, Jacobs JP, Jacobs ML, Krasuski RA, Lodge AJ, Turek JW, Hill KD. The Evolving Surgical Burden of Fontan Failure: An Analysis of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database. Ann Thorac Surg 2021;112(1):179-187. PM: 32763267.

Slawsky E, Ward-Caviness CK, Neas L, Devlin RB, Cascio WE, Russell AG, Huang R, Kraus WE, Hauser E, Diaz-Sanchez D, Weaver AM. Evaluation of PM air pollution sources and cardiovascular health. Environ Epidemiol 2021;5(3):e157. PM: 34131618.

Smith LR, Darty SN, Jenista ER, Gamoneda GL, Wendell DC, Azevedo CF, Parker MA, Kim RJ, Kim HW. ECG-gated MR angiography provides better reproducibility for standard aortic measurements. Eur Radiol 2021;31(7):5087-5095. PM: 33409772.

 

Chief’s message:

The end of the academic year is highlighted by fellowship graduation ceremonies, time with family and friends, and this weekend we had the additional benefit of having Father’s Day.  We are blessed at Duke Heart with the lifeblood of our program, the fellowship training program.  We have the privilege of training the next generation of cardiovascular leaders with an amazing group of fellows, and that was on display at our year end get together.  Chris and Bradi Granger kindly shared their home/farm in Bahama, NC for the festivities.  You will find the pictures and updates below of all the amazing faculty and fellow awards.   Additionally, hopefully all of you got sometime this weekend to celebrate father’s day.

Highlights of the week:

Year-End Celebration for General Cardiology Fellowship Programs

On Friday evening, we gathered (together, in-person, for the first time in far too long!) to celebrate five of our fellows who are completing their training with us and those who are completing one program and transferring into their next fellowship. The general cardiology fellowship year-end dinner, held at the home of Drs. Chris and Bradi Granger and hosted by fellowship program director Anna Lisa Crowley, honored fellows from the Cardiovascular Disease, Advanced Training in Cardiology, and Clinical Investigator Pathway – Cardiovascular Disease fellowship programs. The casual affair featured a BBQ dinner, an awards program and presentation, the annual Fellows video, live music performed by Tony & Ashli Carnicelli and Rob Mentz, MCNA$TY, some free ranging chickens and a dog named Tilley.

 

Congratulations to:

• Rahul Loungani, completing the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology program. He has accepted a position with Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta.
• Hirak Shah, completing the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology program. He has accepted a position with the University of Kansas in Kansas City.
• Angela Lowenstern, our Structural Heart Fellow, is completing the Advanced Training in Cardiology program. She has accepted a position with Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
• Gedion Titus Ng’eno, completing the Advanced Training in Cardiology program. He will join the Duke faculty.
• Jordan Pomeroy, completing the Clinical Investigator Pathway – Cardiovascular Disease program. He has accepted a position with the Food and Drug Administration in Silver Spring.

The following fellows are completing one of the general cardiology fellowship programs on June 30 and transitioning to another. They are:

Amanda Coniglio, completing Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology training and returning to the Cardiovascular Disease program for her third year. She will serve as Duke’s chief cardiology fellow for 2021-2022.

Caitlin Dresher, Michelle Kelsey, Navid Nafissi, Vishal Rao, and Lauren Truby are completing the Cardiovascular Disease program and moving into Advanced clinical and research training in the Cardiology fellowship.

Kevin Friede, Zachary Wegermann and George Sipa Yankey are completing the Advanced Training in Cardiology program and moving into Interventional Cardiology fellowship.

Anthony Carnicelli and Marc Samsky are completing the Advanced Training in Cardiology program and moving into Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology fellowship.

Jeffrey Dixson will return to the Cardiovascular Disease fellowship program on July 1 to complete his third year. He will complete the Non-pulmonary Critical Care Medicine fellowship on June 30.

Christopher Wrobel will take a one year break from the Cardiovascular Disease program to complete the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology fellowship, starting July 1.

John Serfas is completing the Adult Congenital Heart Disease fellowship and moving into the Advanced Training in Cardiology program as the Structural Heart Fellow.

As is our custom at year-end, we presented the following annual awards, which are selected by the cardiology faculty:

• The Cassell-Saperstein Award recognizes a cardiology fellow who most demonstrates a commitment to teaching and passion for clinical education. Our recipient this year is George Sipa Adjay Yankey, Jr.
• The Brandt and Belinda Louie Award recognizes a cardiology fellow who demonstrates a commitment to excellence in all three missions of Duke Heart (clinical, education, and research). Our recipient this year is Kevin Friede.
• The Joseph G. Greenfield Scholar in Cardiology Award recognizes a fellow demonstrating dedication and contribution to research. Our recipient this year is Lauren Truby.

 

The following annual awards, selected by the fellows, were also presented:

• The Walter J. Floyd Award is presented to a fellow who demonstrates most outstanding clinical skills and acumen. Our recipient this year is Vishal Rao.
• The Bashore Faculty Teaching Award is presented to a faculty member demonstrating dedication and excellence in teaching. Our recipient this year is Jason Katz.
• The Fellow Mentorship Award is presented to a faculty member demonstrating dedication and excellence in mentoring fellows’ careers. Our recipient this year is Adam DeVore.
• The Outstanding Service Award is presented to a hospital staff member who demonstrates dedication to and excellence in fellow education. Our recipient this year is Richard Palma.

Congratulations to all awardees and — once again to Rahul, Hirak, Angela, Titus and Jordan — all the best as you transition into the next phase of your careers! Many thanks to all who joined us for a joy- and music-filled evening — special thanks to the fellows for their annual video presentation, to the Grangers for a beautiful venue; to Anna Lisa Crowley, Manesh Patel and Amanda Coniglio for a truly wonderful event, welcoming remarks and presentation. Great job, everyone!

Wofford Heading to Atrium Health

Brian M. Wofford, Vice President of Heart Operations in Durham County, has accepted a position at Atrium Health as the VP of Clinical Integration. His last day at Duke will be June 22. Brian has been on the Duke Heart team for four years and has spent 11 years overall at Duke. He is well-known for his excellent communication skills, ability to network and provide mentorship.

Brian came to Duke in 2010 as an Administrative Fellow and has supported key operational and strategic projects as an Administrative Manager for Strategic Operations including leading the Facility Transition Planning Team for the Duke Medical Pavilion. Brian’s other roles at Duke University Hospital include Administrative Director of Strategic Operations, Administrative Director for Perioperative Ambulatory Services, Interim VP of Emergency Services and Patient Flow and VP of Medical, Surgical and Critical Care Services.

In his most recent role as VP of Heart Services for Durham County, Brian provided support for the expansion of Respiratory Care Services to a system model, partnered with the operational teams and faculty on key construction projects, and co-created the Heart Patient and Family Advisory Council. Brian played a key role as a trainer for other leaders and team members in the Duke Quality System Commit to Zero Harm journey and served as the Operations Sections Co-Chief for the DUH COVID-19 Command Center.

Brian is a talented leader who focuses on relationship building and growing new leaders as demonstrated by the numerous Duke Administrative fellows he has mentored over the years. We very much appreciate Brian’s leadership and commitment to Duke University Hospital and Duke Heart and his strong commitment to excellence, safety and quality.

Please join us in congratulating Brian and thanking him for his tremendous contributions during his time with us!

Frazier-Mills Appointed to Editorial Board

Congratulations to Camille Frazier-Mills from our Electrophysiology team – she has been appointed to the Editorial Board of the journal Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology. She joins fellow faculty members Sana Al-Khatib, Jim Daubert, Jon Piccini and Kevin L. Thomas who also serve on the editorial board.

Congratulations, Camille!

 

 

 

 

 

Southerland Named Wylie Scholar for 2021

Kevin Southerland, MD, an assistant professor of vascular surgery who has been working in the Duke

Cardiovascular Research Center under the mentorship of Dr. Chris Kontos, was mentioned earlier this month in the Pulse after he was awarded a Strong Start Award from the School of Medicine. We are pleased to share that Southerland is this year’s winner of the prestigious Wylie Scholar Award from the Vascular Cures Foundation and the Society for Vascular Surgery Foundation.

The Wylie Scholar Award is given to only one vascular surgeon-scientist each year, and the prize’s previous winners since it was first awarded in 1996 have gone on to become many of the top academic vascular surgeon-scientists in North America. The award is for his project “Transcriptional Dynamics and Heterogeneity of Macrophages in Chronic Limb Threatening Ischemia.” Like the Strong Start Award, the three-year Wylie Scholar Award will provide support for Kevin’s work to understand the mechanisms of critical limb threatening ischemia (CLTI).

Kevin is also supported by a KL2 award from the Duke CTSA, and he is co-investigator on an NIH U01 award with his collaborator Yarui Diao in the Department of Cell Biology. Kevin’s work has focused on single cell transcriptomic and genomic data in clinical and preclinical models to elucidate mechanisms for tissue loss in limb ischemia.

Congratulations, Kevin!!

 

Bonadonna Named to AmSECT Board of Directors

We learned this week that Desiree Bonadonna, chief of Perfusion Services, has been appointed to the American Society of Extracorporeal Technology (AmSECT) Board of Directors as the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) Liaison. The position places her on the ELSO Steering Committee, as well.

The role of the ELSO Liaison is to promote the science of Extracorporeal Life Support in the perfusion community by maintaining an active role in the collaborative efforts of both AmSECT and ELSO. The position, which requires clinical experience in providing extracorporeal life support to neonatal, pediatric and adult patients, is seen as integral in establishing and maintaining all levels of communication across the steering committee, leaders of ELSO and the Board of Directors of AmSECT.

The role is effective July 1. Congratulations, Desiree!

 

Duke Heart APPs Support MSN Students

Several of our ambulatory APP members shared their knowledge and skills with MSN students from the Duke School of Nursing over the past week during the Nurse Practitioner Intensive.

Michelle Johnson, NP-C discussed cases of Adults with Congenital Heart Disease and Mike Strub, PA-C did a live demonstration of cardiac ultrasound and shared his knowledge of Point of Care Cardiac Ultrasound with students across the country via Zoom. Allen Stephens, PA-C discussed EKG interpretation and Kevin Cox, NP-C facilitated discussions on Initiating Home Inotropes and Caring for an LVAD in the outpatient setting.

Great work, everyone! Hat tip to Midge Bowers for sharing this update with us!

 

Cardiology Faculty Members Participate in AAHFN

This week, the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses (AAHFN) held its 17th Annual Meeting, including a pre-meeting Mechanical Circulatory Support (MCS) Bootcamp and Pharmacology workshop this week. The AAHFN thanks Stu Russell, Jason Katz and Marat Fudim for sharing their expertise with the audience.

Thank you to Stephanie Barnes, Clinical Director for Advanced Heart Failure Services, for sharing this with Pulse!

 

ICYMI: Rauch Foundation Makes Historic Gift for Financial Aid

A family foundation established by the late Dudley Rauch, AB’63, has pledged $30 million to establish an endowment for need-based financial aid for medical students in the Duke University School of Medicine.

The gift by the Rauch Family Foundation is the single largest commitment for financial aid ever made to the School of Medicine.

School of Medicine Dean Mary E. Klotman said the Rauch Family Foundation’s generosity will ease the financial burden on generations of medical students at Duke. The gift will help open the path to a career in medicine to more students from diverse backgrounds, and enhance Duke’s ability to compete for the highest caliber of incoming students.

To read the full story, please see: https://bit.ly/3iMhpMF.

 

Upcoming Opportunities/Save the Date:

 

Cardiovascular Risk Management: State of the Science Summit

June 23: — Institutional Perspectives in Cardiology: Cardiovascular Risk Management webinar with Manesh Patel, Schuyler Jones, Tracy Wang and Christopher Granger. 7 to 8:30 p.m. EST. Virtual. Registration is free. They’ll cover:

• CAD/PAD: Identifying Risk & Summary of Recent Clinical Trials
• Extended Thromboprophylaxis: What Do We Know About Scoring, Risk and Contemporary Trials?
• Atrial Fibrillation: What Have We Learned About NOACs in Special Populations?
• Putting This All Together: Treatment Pyramid

To learn more, please visit: HCPLive Institutional Perspectives in Cardiology.

 

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:

June 11 — Sunil Rao and Zachary Wegermann

MDEdge/Cardiology

First risk score to predict bleeding risk after TAVR

https://bit.ly/3iWpVZN

 

June 14 — Christopher Granger and Sean Pokorney

Medpage Today

DOAC Antidotes No Panacea for Fatal Bleeds

https://www.medpagetoday.com/cardiology/prevention/93096

 

June 14 — Christopher Granger and Sean Pokorney

Medscape

Reversal Agents Curb DOAC-related Bleeding but Deaths Still High

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/953045#vp_2

 

June 17 — Vanessa Blumer

Univision NC/WUVC 40

“Fue un héroe”: padre muere ahogado luego de rescatar a su hijo

(Story is about a drowning/water safety & importance of CPR)

https://bit.ly/35Aem2o

Division of Cardiology Publications Indexed in PubMed June 10-18, 2021

Arnold SV, Petrossian G, Reardon MJ, Kleiman NS, Yakubov SJ, Wang K, Hermiller J, Harrison JK, Deeb GM, Huang J, Cohen DJ. Five-Year Clinical and Quality of Life Outcomes From the CoreValve US Pivotal Extreme Risk Trial. Circ Cardiovasc Interv 2021;14(6):e010258. PM: 34092091.

Coles TM, Hernandez AF, Reeve BB, Cook K, Edwards MC, Boutin M, Bush E, Degboe A, Roessig L, Rudolph A, McNulty P, Patel N, Kay-Mugford T, Vernon M, Woloschak M, Buchele G, Spertus JA, Roe MT, Bury D, Weinfurt K. Enabling patient-reported outcome measures in clinical trials, exemplified by cardiovascular trials. Health Qual Life Outcomes 2021;19(1):164. PM: 34120618.

Friedman DJ, Emerek K, Sørensen PL, Zeitler EP, Goldstein SA, Al-Khatib SM, Søgaard P, Graff C, Atwater BD. Sex differences in left ventricular electrical dyssynchrony and outcomes with cardiac resynchronization therapy. Heart Rhythm O2 2020;1(4):243-249. PM: 34113878.

Friedman DJ, Field ME, Rahman M, Goldstein L, Sha Q, Sidharth M, Khanna R, Piccini JP. Catheter ablation and healthcare utilization and cost among patients with paroxysmal versus persistent atrial fibrillation. Heart Rhythm O2 2020;2(1):28-36. PM: 34113902.

Lam CSP, Giczewska A, Sliwa K, Edelmann F, Refsgaard J, Bocchi E, Ezekowitz JA, Hernandez AF, O’Connor CM, Roessig L, Patel MJ, Pieske B, Anstrom KJ, Armstrong PW. Clinical Outcomes and Response to Vericiguat According to Index Heart Failure Event: Insights From the VICTORIA Trial. JAMA Cardiol 2021;6(6):706-712. PM: 33185650.

Lopes RD, de Barros E Silva PGM, Furtado RHM, Macedo AVS, Bronhara B, Damiani LP, Barbosa LM, de Aveiro Morata J, Ramacciotti E, de Aquino Martins P, de Oliveira AL, Nunes VS, Ritt LEF, Rocha AT, Tramujas L, Santos SV, Diaz DRA, Viana LS, Melro LMG, et al. Therapeutic versus prophylactic anticoagulation for patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 and elevated D-dimer concentration (ACTION): an open-label, multicentre, randomised, controlled trial. Lancet 2021;397(10291):2253-2263. PM: 34097856.

Murphy SP, Prescott MF, Maisel AS, Butler J, Piña IL, Felker GM, Ward JH, Williamson KM, Camacho A, Kandanelly RR, Solomon SD, Januzzi JL. Association Between Angiotensin Receptor-Neprilysin Inhibition, Cardiovascular Biomarkers, and Cardiac Remodeling in Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction. Circ Heart Fail 2021;14(6):e008410. PM: 33998243.

Nagaraja V, Rao SV, George S, Mamas M, Nolan J. Evidence-based arterial access site practice in patients with acute coronary syndromes: Has SAFARI-STEMI changed the landscape? Catheter Cardiovasc Interv 2021;97(7):1417-1421. PM: 33837993.

Patel D, Kumar A, Black-Maier E, Morgan RL, Trulock K, Wilner B, Nemer D, Donnellan E, Tarakji KG, Cantillon DJ, Varma N, Saba SF, Al-Khatib SM, Wilkoff BL, Rickard JW. Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy With or Without Defibrillation in Patients With Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol 2021;14(6):e008991. PM: 33999647.

Piccini JP, Braegelmann KM, Simma S, Koneru JN, Ellenbogen KA. Risk of atrioesophageal fistula with cryoballoon ablation of atrial fibrillation. Heart Rhythm O2 2020 May 28;1(3):173-179. PM: 34113871.

Rao SV, Wegermann ZK. Quo Vadis, Bleeding Risk Models? JACC Cardiovasc Interv 2021 Jun 14;14(11):1207-1208. PM: 34112455.

Rodriguez F, Solomon N, de Lemos JA, Das SR, Morrow DA, Bradley SM, Elkind MSV, Williams JH, Holmes D, Matsouaka RA, Gupta D, Gluckman TJ, Abdalla M, Albert MA, Yancy CW, Wang TY. Racial and Ethnic Differences in Presentation and Outcomes for Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19: Findings From the American Heart Association’s COVID-19 Cardiovascular Disease Registry. Circulation 2021 Jun 15;143(24):2332-2342. PM: 33200953.

Samsky MD, Hellkamp A, Hiatt WR, Fowkes FGR, Baumgartner I, Berger JS, Katona BG, Mahaffey KW, Norgren L, Blomster JI, Rockhold FW, DeVore AD, Patel MR, Jones WS. Association of Heart Failure With Outcomes Among Patients With Peripheral Artery Disease: Insights From EUCLID. J Am Heart Assoc 2021 Jun 15;10(12):e018684. PM: 34056910.

Segar MW, Jaeger BC, Patel KV, Nambi V, Ndumele CE, Correa A, Butler J, Chandra A, Ayers C, Rao S, Lewis AA, Raffield LM, Rodriguez CJ, Michos ED, Ballantyne CM, Hall ME, Mentz RJ, de Lemos JA, Pandey A. Development and Validation of Machine Learning-Based Race-Specific Models to Predict 10-Year Risk of Heart Failure: A Multicohort Analysis. Circulation 2021 Jun 15;143(24):2370-2383. PM: 33845593.

Sutton NR, Banerjee S, Cooper MM, Arbab-Zadeh A, Kim J, Arain MA, Rao SV, Blumenthal RS. Coronary Artery Disease Evaluation and Management Considerations for High Risk Occupations: Commercial Vehicle Drivers and Pilots. Circ Cardiovasc Interv 2021 Jun;14(6):e009950. PM: 34092098.

Wang A, Truong T, Black-Maier E, Green C, Campbell KB, Barnett AS, Febre J, Loring Z, Al-Khatib SM, Atwater BD, Daubert JP, Frazier-Mills C, Hegland DD, Jackson KP, Jackson LR, Koontz JI, Lewis RK, Pokorney SD, Sun AY, Thomas KL, Bahnson TD, Piccini JP. Catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation in patients with diabetes mellitus. Heart Rhythm O2 2020 May 12;1(3):180-188. PM: 34113872.

 

 

Highlights of the week:

Kisslo to Receive ASE Award for Outstanding Achievement

Joseph Kisslo, professor of medicine in cardiology, will receive the American Society of Echocardiography’s (ASE) Outstanding Achievement in Perioperative Echocardiography Award next weekend at the ASE 2021 Scientific Sessions Virtual Experience. Kisslo, who served as the fourth president of ASE (1983-1984), is the first cardiologist to be recognized with the award. His recorded presentation regarding the award will be shown during the ASE Virtual Gala on Sunday, June 20.

The Outstanding Achievement in Perioperative Echocardiography Award recognizes an individual who has made significant clinical, research or educational contributions to the development of the field of perioperative echocardiography. The awardee is chosen by the ASE Council on Perioperative Echocardiography.

Kisslo was the first to use phased array ultrasound imaging in the human body and the first to describe most of the disease for which the technique is now commonplace. Not only has his work shaped the field of echocardiography, it helped establish Duke Heart as one of the premier cardiovascular treatment centers in the world.

We asked Dr. Kisslo’s colleagues to submit their perspective on his work at Duke and what it has meant to them. We received a tremendous response. Without a doubt, Dr. Kisslo is among our most beloved faculty members. Here is what they shared:

“Dr. Kisslo was inclusive even before the term was invented. He elevates people around him, his colleagues, anesthesiologists, sonographers. He is a friend and a teacher, and one of the founding fathers of perioperative echocardiography. Without him, our professional landscape would be different. Thank you!” — Alina Nicoara, MD

“Dr. Joe Kisslo is recognized worldwide for his formative work in the field of echocardiography.  His impact on cardiac ultrasound imaging stems from his unique ability to forge lasting collaborative relationships between clinical cardiology, cardiac anesthesia and engineering at Duke resulting in meaningful contributions including phased array ultrasound imaging, Doppler color flow imaging, and transesophageal imaging.  He has been honored worldwide for his contributions to the field. I consider myself overwhelming lucky to have been one of his students and colleagues.”  – Anita Kelsey, MD

“Dr. Kisslo is a legend in the field of Cardiac Ultrasound. He has been a leader and dedicated professor that has shared his wealth of knowledge and experience with the world. Learning from him has been an honor and a gift that I will cherish and apply to my students.”  — Richard A. Palma, Director of the Duke Cardiac Ultrasound Certificate Program

“I feel so privileged to have the opportunity to learn from Dr. Kisslo going over cases almost daily. Thanks to Dr. Kisslo, I will always remember to calculate LV strain patterns at the onset of the QRS complex!! It’s not every day that you get to learn from not only an expert in your field but one of the few who revolutionized the entire world of cardiac ultrasound!” – Sarah H., sonographer

“Vince Lombardi may have said, ‘Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.’ Dr. Kisslo has lived this adage throughout his career, and has taught all of us to not settle for mediocrity. He inspires me to work harder, not to settle for mediocrity, and therefore I believe that I am a better person, both professionally and personally.” – Jean Woolard, sonographer

“Thank you for your pioneering efforts in the field of Perioperative Echocardiography. You were the first to advocate for and actually demonstrate how collaboration between cardiology, cardiac anesthesiology, and cardiac surgery would actually improve the care of our patients. And what a difference that pioneering spirit has made to the field of cardiac anesthesiology and to the generations (including me) that learned from you not just about echocardiography but also of excellence, innovation, and passionate curiosity. Congratulations on this well-deserved award, Doctor, Professor, Reverend Kisslo!” — Joseph Mathew, MD

“Dr. Joseph Kisslo is a true pioneer in the field of echocardiography. While most are familiar with his contributions to the development of the technology and its use in cardiovascular care, few may be aware of his profound influence in the operating room. In the early days of perioperative echo, Joe made countless trips to the operating room to collaborate with surgeons and anesthesiologists and demonstrate the value of echo in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Whether it was using a TEE probe with a sterile sheath for epicardial echo in pediatric cardiac surgery, or pioneering the use of TEE in adult patients, Joe had a huge impact on an entire generation of cardiac anesthesiologists. He helped us see the immediate results of heart surgery, something we had never envisioned before. As a result, the field developed and Duke has been a leader in perioperative echo ever since, including at ASE, a society he helped create in the mid ’70s. His staunch support of perioperative echo led to the first anesthesiologist leading ASE as president in 2019. I will forever be grateful for his support. Congratulations on this award, Joe!” – Madhav Swaminathan, MD

“When I was in school and at my first job out of state, I was always curious about the clinical impact that the operator dependence of echo has on a patient’s care. During Hi-5, Joe is passionate and a huge advocate for the ongoing training and education of sonographers. He not only advocates for us to think as a sonographer but also as a clinician and about the clinical implications our echo will have on a patient’s care. This has made me much more diligent and helps me think critically about the role that I play in helping answer a clinical question. Through the education and training that Joe provides, I have learned so much in my short time here. I now know what sets our lab, sonographers, and echoes apart from other institutions. What makes for a good echo is not just the latest and greatest machine, but the sonographer that is able to think critically and use the appropriate tools to answer a clinical question. I have no regrets and have zero disappointments in making the move from Arizona. Thanks to Joe and his involvement, the opportunity to work at Duke has lived up to all of my expectations of what it would be like to work at a world renowned institution. Joe has made me proud to be a sonographer here at Duke and I appreciate all that he does.” – Eddy Sandoval, sonographer

“Dr. Kisslo has made a career out of educating all of us in cardiology. Treating us all as brother, sisters, children and grandchildren he never misses a chance to mentor us all. The passion he shows and the high expectations to which he holds us are on the forefront each and every day, making us all better professionals. I am so thankful for the left and right SVC ladder, making 3D “Jelly Beans” and after-hours adult congenital training. Heart dissections and 3D training with experts that I have had the pleasure of working side by side with are unique and valuable opportunities. Joe, thanks so much for pushing us all to be great.” — One of your children of Echo

“Dr. Kisslo, from the moment we sat in his office in 1984 asking if he would help two ignorant cardiac anesthesiologists learn about transesophageal echocardiography, has been continuously supportive of everyone involved in the use of TEE at Duke.

When our first book about TEE was published in 1987, Joe’s foreword included this prescient remark concerning the use of TEE in cardiac anesthesia: “…likely to redefine the requisite fund of knowledge and skills necessary for the practice of cardiovascular anesthesiology in the future.”

Joe’s history with the development of phased array echo transducers is the reason we got hold of HP color flow Doppler probes so early in the game.

His willingness to come to the OR to help with any questions, and his willingness to allow his expert echocardiographers, Kitty Kisslo and David Adams, to help with our education enabled our TEE skills to develop and engendered confidence amongst anesthesiologists and cardiac surgeons.

Cardiologists, not generally used to inserting gastroscope-like echo probes into awake patients, used to come along to the OR induction rooms for assistance in looking for left atrial thrombi and vegetations associated with infectious endocarditis. They were thrilled with the quality of images obtained with the esophageal window.

There again, Joe’s leadership resulted in advances in cardiology practice. His has been a remarkable career, and so many of us lucky to have learned from him.” — Fiona and Norbert (Drs. Norbert de Bruijn and Fiona Clements, now retired)

“It’s hard to put together what to say about Dr. Kisslo because one feels they’ll fall short. He’s a mentor, innovator, father figure, teacher, someone who makes you want to be the best person you can be. I find myself quoting him almost daily at work, especially as I’m educating others. His hunger for knowledge and understanding is contagious. He’s one of the most supportive individuals I’ve ever met. There’s always a challenge he puts forward for us to meet, but it drives us to excel. Thank you Joe for your continual support, we all are better in our careers from it.” — Alicia Armour, Health Center Administrator, Triangle Heart Associates

“‘We are in the relentless pursuit of perfection,’ Dr. Kisslo has instilled this in all of us that have had the privilege of being his students, echo disciples, and friends. Joe has more determination than anyone I have ever met, when many of us would have given up, he just keeps going. He will be there for you in any way he can, both professionally as well as personally. When my mom was diagnosed with cancer, Joe was my first call “who should she see?” and when in the cross-roads of professional decisions, Joe was there to bounce ideas off of (and give me the hard truths). Most importantly, he taught us the 4th of the 3 Rules of Echo: ‘Talk to each other.’” — Ashlee Davis, Chief Technologist, CDU

“I am thrilled to see Dr. Kisslo recognized for his never-ending dedication to the field of Echocardiography. I have so much respect for the time and effort that Dr. Kisslo invests in educating sonographers, physicians, engineering students, and many more at Duke and across the world. His passion for the field of echo is contagious. He makes me want to be better at what I do and made me realize that I can contribute to the advancement and future of echo. Working closely with Dr. Kisslo has emphatically impacted my life both personally and professionally.” – Batina Kight, sonographer

Congratulations, Dr. Kisslo!

 

Swaminathan to Deliver Edler Lecture

Congratulations to our colleague Madhav Swaminathan, cardiac anesthesiologist and immediate past president of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE)! He has been selected to deliver the Edler Lecture next weekend at ASE 2021 Scientific Sessions Virtual Experience. The title of his presentation is Echo, Equity, and Empowerment: A Framework for the Future. The annual Edler Lecture honors the founder of echocardiography, Dr. Inge Edler; it was created in 1990.

 

Shout-out to EKG Support Unit, Daubert & Kraus

A wonderful shout-out to our Duke Heart EKG Support Unit & Diagnostics teams – including Terri DeMuro, Kim Starkey, Duke LifeFlight Event Medicine, Jim Daubert and Bill Kraus!

Hap Zarzour, of Duke Athletics wrote to us in thanks of our annual support of their freshman football player physicals, which were held on Monday, June 7 at Yoh Football Center:

“Thank you everyone for all of your help during freshman football physicals. Things went perfectly, we were able to get all the testing completed as well as an ECHO that afternoon. Amazing. Your hard work and support is so appreciated.  I’m so proud of our resources at Duke that enable us to provide care for our athletes and staff, and Duke Cardiology is at the top of the list.” – Robert “Hap” Zarzour, Executive Director of Athletic Medicine

“Kudos to the Duke Heart team for their outstanding commitment and performance once again!”– Jill Engel, Associate Vice President – Heart Services

Shout-out to Team Members on 7700

Rio Landa wrote in earlier this week with a shout-out to team members on 7700. Great work, everyone!

“Big thank you to Brooke, Callie, Dr. Dennis Abraham, and Dr. Jamie Jollis for their help with a sick patient on 7700 last weekend.” – Rio Landa, co-team leader of Cardiology APPs

Patient Compliments from Satisfaction Surveys

Many thanks to Lisa Clark Pickett, Chief Medical Officer, Duke University Hospital for sharing the following two great notes with us!

In the first, Pickett shared, “While reading comments on our Patient Satisfaction Survey I was delighted to read this high compliment of the excellent care provided by your team. Thank you for such outstanding teamwork and care!:

“The various teams of Doctors headed up my Drs. Wang and Milano and the stent placement team were outstanding and worked closely together to solve my blocked arteries without having to resort to open heart surgery. The nurses on floors 3 and 7 were also outstanding especially on floor three. Please give them all my heartfelt thanks!” – Name withheld for confidentiality

Nicely done, Andrew Wang, Carmelo Milano and Floors 3 & 7 Nursing teams!

Her second note stated, “While reading comments on our Patient Satisfaction Survey, I was delighted to read this lovely one about your team. Please share with the wonderful nurses, as their last names were not included. Thank you all for providing such excellent and compassionate care!:

“All of the nurses were exceptional in their card during my stay. Nurse JT in CCU was a great guy to have during a time that I did feel uncomfortable due to the fact that I never stayed in a hospital. Dr. Crawford is excellent as my Cardiologist for my Cath Lab Dr. Jollis was superb in giving me insight into my heart issues. Dr Bloomfield did a noteworthy job in giving me the information on my future Open Heart Surgery. Nurse Andreas and the rest of the RN Staff were exceptional in making sure that I was comfortable and helped me with all my needs during my stay. Duke Cardiology is most definitely a first-class operation that genuinely cares about their patients.” – Name withheld for confidentiality

Great work, Larry Crawford, Jamie Jollis, Gerry Bloomfield & Care teams!

 

Virtual Town Hall, June 14

A virtual Town Hall, Planning for the Future of Duke Health’s Clinical Enterprise will be held Monday, June 14 from 5-6 p.m. The event is open to all members of the Duke Health community. Panelists will include Eugene Washington, William Fulkerson, Mary Klotman, Thomas Owens, Theodore Pappas and John Sampson. Erica Taylor will moderate. You may submit questions in advance to DHPG@duke.edu. A recording of the town hall will be posted on dukehealthplanning.duke.edu by close of business the following day. To join the Zoom, please click here: Join the Zoom.

Note: Access to the webinar requires authenticated access with your NetID and password. If prompted to sign in, please select to ‘Sign in with SSO’ and enter ‘duke’ when prompted for the company domain. You will be directed to log in with your NetID and password.

 

Scholars Tip: Global Scholarship

Do you want your research and expertise to appear on the Duke in the World map? It’s as easy as updating your Scholars@Duke profile to reflect your global scholarship! Any global scholarship from your profile is automatically added to the map for others to explore.

Duke scholars represent more than 150 countries with their research, expertise, service, and teaching. Sharing your global scholarship is a great way to connect with other experts who share interest in a particular region.

How to indicate your Global Scholarship:

Make sure your device is connected to the internet, then follow these steps:

1. Type duke.edu in your computer’s browser address bar.
2. Click Edit My Profile under Update
3. Log in using your NetID and password, and then click Manage Your Profile.
4. Select Global Scholarship from the Scholarly Output section of the Profile Manager.
5. Follow the instructions in the How to Edit box to designate a specific state, country, or continent that you’ve impacted with your work.
6. Click Save to update your profile or click Cancel to discard any changes.

Remember to update your Community Outreach

Often, your Global Scholarship involves some form of community outreach, which might include activities such as field work or advocacy. If this applies to you, be sure to indicate these activities in the Outreach and Engaged Scholarship section of your Scholars profile.

 

Upcoming Opportunities/Save the Date:

Virtual PMWC: Precision Medicine in the Era of a Pandemic Recovery

June 14-18 – Precision World Medicine Conference. Registration is free and open to all. https://www.pmwcintl.com/covid/

Duke University Chancellor Emeritus Dr. Ralph Snyderman will lead a panel discussion on Personalized, Proactive Value-Based Care: Emerging New Models.

The confluence of the growth of chronic diseases, the impact of COVID, the emergence of new technologies, and the impact of value-based reimbursement are driving major innovations and changes in care delivery. Proactive, personalized, precision, population-based and digitally supported care is emerging and heralding new approaches to health care. This session will capture the elements of these changes and the dynamics of the forces that are driving them. Perspective from care innovators, large providers and payers will be discussed by the following key opinion leaders:

• Patrick  Conway, CEO of Care Solutions, Optum
• Jaewon Ryu, President and Chief Executive Officer, Geisinger
• Rodney Hochman, President & CEO, Providence St. Joseph Health
• Marc Harrison, President and CEO, Intermountain Healthcare

 

HCPLive State of the Science Summit

June 23: — Institutional Perspectives in Cardiology: Cardiovascular Risk Management webinar with Manesh Patel, Schuyler Jones, Tracy Wang and Christopher Granger. 7 to 8:30 p.m. EST. Virtual. Registration is free. They’ll cover:

• CAD/PAD: Identifying Risk & Summary of Recent Clinical Trials
• Extended Thromboprophylaxis: What Do We Know About Scoring, Risk and Contemporary Trials?
• Atrial Fibrillation: What Have We Learned About NOACs in Special Populations?
• Putting This All Together: Treatment Pyramid

To learn more, please visit: HCPLive Institutional Perspectives in Cardiology.

 

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:

June 4 — Cameron Wolfe

CBS17.com

Heart reaction in 7 teenagers probed as possible rare Pfizer vaccine link

https://bit.ly/3xfo0U2

June 6 — Marc Samsky

Healio/Cardiology Today

Among patients with PAD, those with HF at higher risk for poor outcomes

https://bit.ly/2TWe57o

June 7 — Christopher Granger

WECT News (Wilmington, NC)

Brunswick County EMS to participate in Duke University study

https://bit.ly/3pKgHkG

June 7 — Sunil Rao

Medscape

First Risk Score to Predict Bleeding Risk After TAVR

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/952580#vp_1

Division of Cardiology Publications Indexed in PubMed June 3-9, 2021

Butala NM, Makkar R, Secemsky EA, Gallup D, Marquis-Gravel G, Kosinski AS, Vemulapalli S, Valle JA, Bradley SM, Chakravarty T, Yeh RW, Cohen DJ. Cerebral Embolic Protection and Outcomes of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement: Results From the Transcatheter Valve Therapy Registry. Circulation 2021;143(23):2229-2240. PM: 33619968.

Dal-Ré R, Mentz RJ, Rosendaal FR. Thoughtful selection and use of scientific terms in clinical research: the case of ‘pragmatic’ trials. J Investig Med 2021;69(5):1056-1058. PM: 33753535.

Dong R, Leung C, Naert MN, Naanyu V, Kiptoo P, Matelong W, Matini E, Orango V, Bloomfield GS, Edelman D, Fuster V, Manyara S, Menya D, Pastakia SD, Valente T, Kamano J, Horowitz CR, Vedanthan R. Chronic disease stigma, skepticism of the health system, and socio-economic fragility: Qualitative assessment of factors impacting receptiveness to group medical visits and microfinance for non-communicable disease care in rural Kenya. PLoS One 2021;16(6):e0248496. PM: 34097700.

Elliott BA, Holley CL. Assessing 2′-O-Methylation of mRNA Using Quantitative PCR. Methods Mol Biol 2021;2298:171-184. PM: 34085245.

Felker GM, Butler J, Januzzi JL, Desai AS, McMurray JJV, Solomon SD. Probabilistic Readjudication of Heart Failure Hospitalization Events in the PARAGON-HF Study. Circulation 2021;143(23):2316-2318. PM: 34097449.

Kaufman BG, Granger BB, Sun JL, Sanders G, Taylor DH, Mark DB, Warraich H, Fiuzat M, Steinhauser K, Tulsky JA, Rogers JG, O’Connor C, Mentz RJ. The Cost-Effectiveness of Palliative Care: Insights from the PAL-HF Trial. J Card Fail 2021;27(6):662-669. PM: 33731305.

Kennedy DL, Olsen MK, Yang H, Gao X, Alkon A, Prose NS, Dunbar K, Jackson LR, Pollak KI. Communication Coaching in Cardiology (CCC): A study protocol and methodological challenges and solutions of a randomized controlled trial in outpatient cardiology clinics. Contemp Clin Trials 2021;105:106389. PM: 33798730.

Lala A, Mentz RJ. Remembering the Calling – Where Patients and Caregivers Are Front and Center. J Card Fail 2021;27(6):621. PM: 34088378.

Mullan CW, Chouairi F, Sen S, Mori M, Clark KAA, Reinhardt SW, Miller PE, Fuery MA, Jacoby D, Maulion C, Anwer M, Geirsson A, Mulligan D, Formica R, Rogers JG, Desai NR, Ahmad T. Changes in Use of Left Ventricular Assist Devices as Bridge to Transplantation With New Heart Allocation Policy. JACC Heart Fail 2021;9(6):420-429. PM: 33714748.

Perez AL, Grodin JL, Chaikijurajai T, Wu Y, Hernandez AF, Butler J, Metra M, Felker GM, Voors AA, McMurray JJ, Armstrong PW, O’Connor C, Starling RC, Tang WHW. Interleukin-6 and Outcomes in Acute Heart Failure: An ASCEND-HF Substudy. J Card Fail 2021;27(6):670-676. PM: 33497809.

Pfeiffer CT, Wang J, Paulo JA, Jiang X, Gygi SP, Rockman HA. Mapping Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor-Biased Signaling Using Proximity Labeling and Proteomics Identifies Diverse Actions of Biased Agonists. J Proteome Res 2021;20(6):3256-3267. PM: 33950683.

Rao SV. Real-World Data on the Intravascular Microaxial Left Ventricular Flow Pump (Impella) in High-Risk Patients. Korean Circ J 2021;51(6):487-494. PM: 34085421.

 

 

Highlights of the week:

Milano Delivers Inaugural Cohn Lectureship at Tufts

Duke heart surgeon Carmelo Milano, MD, delivered the inaugural American Association of Thoracic Surgery (AATS) Lawrence H. Cohn Visiting Lectureship of Cardiac Surgery at Tufts Medical Center on May 27. Milano’s talk, Heart Transplantation Utilizing Donors after Circulatory Death, was held via Zoom. The Tufts team was unanimously chosen as the inaugural recipient of the AATS/AATS Foundation lectureship award.

The lectureship was established to honor the memory of the late Dr. Lawrence H. Cohn, former president of AATS and a highly-esteemed cardiovascular surgeon who spent the majority of his career in Boston. Cohn died in 2016 at the age of 78. He was the former chief of the Division of Cardiac Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and held the Virginia and James Hubbard Chair in Cardiac Surgery at Harvard Medical School. Across his career, Cohn performed more than 11,500 cardiac surgical operations and was world-renowned in the field of valve repair and replacement surgery and minimally invasive heart surgery. He was a member of the team that completed the first heart transplant in New England in 1984.

“In a nutshell, Dr. Cohn was the consummate academic cardiac surgeon leader and trainer of academic surgeons,” said Frederick Y. Chen, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Cardiac Surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine and a mentee of Cohn’s. “He wanted to train surgeons who would change and move the field forward.”

The American Association of Thoracic Surgery and AATS Foundation opened applications a year ago to apply for the Cohn Lectureship. As part of the application process, the Tufts team identified Milano as their choice of lecturer if they were to win the award.

Earlier this year, Tufts was approved to begin use of the technology that makes DCD heart transplantation possible. They were eager to hear directly from a surgeon with a high level of expertise in DCD who is also a leader within AATS.

“When I surveyed the field, I felt there really is no other surgeon with the expertise of Dr. Milano in the U.S. who performs DCD transplants,” added Chen. “Moreover, I’ve known about Dr. Milano for a very long time. He, too, is a consummate academic cardiac surgeon. He has an R01; he operates, and he’s a teacher – so he really is the traditional triple threat surgeon. We felt, as an internationally known senior AATS member and a highly-regarded educator and mentor, that he would be a great fit for this.”

As part of the lectureship, the Tufts team held a tribute to Dr. Cohn and a meet-and-greet so that all members of their cardiovascular and thoracic surgery teams, including PAs, perfusionists, and anesthesiologists, as well as members of leadership and their administration could participate. The tribute and lecture were attended by family members of the late Dr. Cohn.

 

McGarrah, Southerland Receive Strong Start awards

Congratulations to Rob McGarrah, assistant professor of medicine in cardiology, researcher in the Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC) and member of the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute; and to Kevin Southerland, assistant professor of surgery in the division of vascular and endovascular surgery, who has done considerable research in the CVRC lab of Christopher Kontos. They are two of six physician scientists in the Duke School of Medicine who were selected to receive Strong Start Awards.

McGarrah’s research has made strides in answering the question of how a disease in the liver can affect a distant organ like the heart. He and his collaborators have found that obesity turns off a certain metabolism pathway in the liver, leading to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and also increasing the levels of specific amino acids (building blocks of proteins) in the blood. When these amino acids are delivered to the heart, they cause the heart to store more fat, which is unhealthy, and to make more protein, which can cause unhealthy heart muscle thickening. This liver-heart cross talk might explain why non-alcoholic fatty liver disease causes abnormal heart function.

The overall goal of the Kontos lab is to understand how blood vessels grow and remodel in response to both pathological and physiological stimuli as well as how they maintain normal tissue function, a process known as vascular homeostasis. The work that Dr. Southerland did in the Kontos lab focused specifically on how genetics influence muscle injury following ischemia in a mouse model.

The Strong Start Award program is designed to nurture the careers of junior, laboratory-based physician-scientists at Duke. By offering substantive mentoring and financial resources, the award supports junior faculty during a critical period of their career — the transition to research independence. Each award is for $75,000 per year, renewable up to three consecutive years ($225,000 total). The funds are to be used at the discretion of the individual recipient to support their research program.

Congratulations Rob and Kevin!

Katz, Arps & Sullivan Receive Year-End Medicine Awards

 

Congratulations to Jason Katz; third-year cardiology fellow Kelly Arps; and incoming fellow Lonnie Sullivan! Katz was awarded the Internal Medicine residency program’s Eugene Stead Faculty Teaching Award given to the faculty who best exemplifies the principles of teach from Dr. Steads time at Duke; Arps received the Fellow Teaching Award and Sullivan received the Haskell Schiff Award for Excellence, which is peer-selected and given to the house staff member who best represents the ideal of the program. The awards, presented annually by Duke’s Internal Medicine Chief Residents, were presented on Friday, June 4 during Medicine Grand Rounds. We are so proud of you!

McKee Retiring from Heart Center Communications

Vickie McKee, a transitional care nurse with Heart Center Communications, will retire from Duke University Health System at the end of June. She has been working at Duke for 43 years. A certified Basic Life Support Instructor and Heart Failure Nurse, McKee was one of the first recipients of Duke’s Friends of Nursing Award, receiving it in 1989 and again in 1999. She has co-authored several poster presentations related to heart failure, and shepherded a number of projects to advance education for patients, including iPad Technology for Heart Failure Education that involved a collaboration between the Duke Transitional Nursing Institute and DCRI/Duke Center for Learning Health Care. Another such project was Heart at Home, Transition in Care where she assisted in the development of a DVD used to educate heart failure patients transitioning from the hospital to home and back to clinic.

Vickie’s last official day with us will be Wednesday, June 30. Please offer her your warm congratulations this month. We know she will be missed!

Members of the HCC team shared these thoughts with us:

“I was thrilled when Vickie joined the Heart Center Communications team as a cardiology transitional care nurse, where we provide our inpatient cardiology patients with post discharge follow up telephone calls. She has brought a wealth of cardiac nursing knowledge and skill to our team, and it has been an honor to work with Vickie and to learn from her. She has served in many nursing roles during her years here at Duke, and each of these roles have played a part in the nursing expertise that she has brought to our team. I have seen her provide such genuine and exemplary care to her patients; she has truly had a positive impact on so many lives. I am so proud to call her my friend and colleague, and I wish her all the best as she enters into the next chapter in her life. I will miss her!” — Cheryl Swartz, Cardiology Transitional Care Nurse, HCC

“Vickie is a great nurse, coworker, and friend. She is compassionate with patients and their families. I wish her the best in this next phase of her life.” — Ruth B. Cavales, Transitional Care Nurse, HCC

“Vickie’s compassion and experience will be greatly missed.” — Michael Blazing, Medical Director; Greg Shelton, Administrative Director; and Gina Nesmith, Nurse Program Manager; HCC.

 

Wegermann Closes Out CGR

Zach Wegermann was the closer for the 2020-21 Cardiology Grand Rounds season on Tuesday, June 1. Wegermann presented research that utilized several different registries to gain insights on various questions related to interventional cardiology. His work showed that patients receiving MitraClip had larger improvements in quality of life outcomes, as measured by Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) scores, when they had lower baseline KCCQ score prior to the procedure.  Another project highlighted that intraoperative TEE during CABG frequently reveals worse-than-expected valvular disease, leading to unplanned valve repair or replacement. Notably, there is wide variance across centers in the usage of intraoperative TEE for CABG, raising the question of whether a more standardized approach is needed. The lecture was not recorded for potential PHI reasons, but we are sure that Dr. Wegermann would be happy to field any follow-up questions. You can read the published results here.

Looking forward, CGR will be on summer break until September 14, when we will kick off the 2021-22 academic year with Dr. Robert Lefkowitz as our guest speaker.

Krasuski Grand Rounds Presentation, Mass General

Rich Krasuski, director of our Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center, was the guest presenter for Cardiology Grand Rounds at Mass General Hospital (MGH) on June 2. A recorded presentation of his talk, The Complexities of Managing Pulmonary Hypertension in Congenital Heart Disease, can be found here; a pre-grand rounds interview with Krasuski, conducted by Mostafa Al-Alusi, a first-year cardiovascular disease fellow at MGH, can be found here.

Fast Track Extubation Article in AACN

Congratulations to our 7W research team, including Myra Ellis, Heather Pena, Allen Cadavero, Debra Farrell, Mollie Kettle, Alexandra Kaatz, Tonda Thomas, Bradi Granger and Kamrouz Ghadami! Their article, Reducing Intubation Time in Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery Patients With a Fast-track Extubation Protocol is the cover article in the June 2021 issue of Critical Care Nurse (CCN), one of the journals of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. The publication is available online and can be found here. Be sure to check out the associated article appearing in HealthLeaders below in “Duke Heart in the News.”

 

Heart Center Leadership Council Spring Meeting Held

The Heart Center Leadership Council held their spring meeting on Friday, May 21 via Zoom. The Council has welcomed four new members over the past year: Kathy Finley, Brad Branch, Chuck Swoboda and Dennis Wicker.

Manesh Patel and Edward Chen, co-directors of Duke Heart Center, provided a general overview of our programs, an update on our latest research and how the pandemic impacted us. The Council then heard a great presentation on the Heart Transplant program from Jacob Schroder and Chet Patel, who covered major milestones from across the past year.

Some comments from the meeting:

“I just wanted to say how blessed I think we are to have Duke and Duke Heart in our neighborhood as well as southeast United States. I am impressed and proud of what is being done — thank you!” — Robb Teer, member, Heart Center Leadership Council

“So impressed by the energy, innovation and courage it takes to do things differently.” Donna Childress, member, Heart Center Leadership Council

The HCLC will meet again in October.

 

Duke Health Closes COVID-19 Command Centers

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Duke established Hospital Incident Command Structure (HICS) command centers that allowed for close monitoring and quick adjustments to every part of our operations across the health system. Due to the significant decrease in the spread of infection, Duke has closed all COVID-19 command centers as of June 1. DUHS leadership will continue to monitor COVID-19 and keep safe practices in place. However, the command center closures represent the end of Duke Health’s official emergency response efforts.

COVID Hotline Hours as of June 1

As of June 1, the COVID hotline hours of operation for patients, Duke employees and students are as follows:

Employee Hotline: 8 a.m. – 6 p.m., daily. For urgent after-hours concerns, call the Blood and Body Fluids Hotline at 919-684-8115.

Vaccine Hotline: 8 a.m. – 6 p.m., Monday – Saturday.

Patient Hotline:  8 a.m. – 6 p.m., Monday – Saturday. There will remain an option to reach Nurse Triage from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. and Sundays from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. for symptomatic and exposed patients.

Student Hotline: 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. daily.

Asymptomatic Testing Hotline: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday – Saturday.

 

Scholars Tip: Showcase Your Presentations

Did you know your Scholars@Duke profile has a spot for all of your important invited talks and keynotes? Your Scholars profile is the ultimate tool to demonstrate your contributions to the Duke community and enable discovery of your work. Be sure to list any notable presentations (conferences, lectures, interviews, invited talks, keynotes, etc.) you want others to notice.

How to display notable appearances on your Scholars profile

Make sure your device is connected to the internet, then follow these steps:

1. Type scholars.duke.edu in your computer’s browser address bar.
2. Click Edit My Profile under Update
3. Log in using your NetID and password, and then click Manage Your Profile.
4. Select Global Scholarship from the Scholarly Output section of the Profile Manager.
5. Scroll down to the Professional Activities section, expand the Recognition heading, then click Presentations & Appearances.
6. Click Add and complete the required fields to describe your presentation and provide a link to any related materials, then click save. Repeat this step for every presentation you wish to display on your profile.

Information contained in your Scholars@Duke profile feeds into other websites at Duke, so it’s good to keep your Scholars profile as up to date as possible.

 

Upcoming Opportunities/Save the Date:

Virtual PMWC: Precision Medicine in the Era of a Pandemic Recovery

June 14-18 – Precision World Medicine Conference. Registration is free and open to all. https://www.pmwcintl.com/covid/

Duke University Chancellor Emeritus Dr. Ralph Snyderman will lead a panel discussion on Personalized, Proactive Value-Based Care: Emerging New Models.

The confluence of the growth of chronic diseases, the impact of COVID, the emergence of new technologies, and the impact of value-based reimbursement are driving major innovations and changes in care delivery. Proactive, personalized, precision, population-based and digitally supported care is emerging and heralding new approaches to health care. This session will capture the elements of these changes and the dynamics of the forces that are driving them. Perspective from care innovators, large providers and payers will be discussed by the following key opinion leaders:

• Patrick  Conway, CEO of Care Solutions, Optum
• Jaewon Ryu, President and Chief Executive Officer, Geisinger
• Rodney Hochman, President & CEO, Providence St. Joseph Health
• Marc Harrison, President and CEO, Intermountain Healthcare

 

HCPLive State of the Science Summit

June 23: — Institutional Perspectives in Cardiology: Cardiovascular Risk Management webinar with Manesh Patel, Schuyler Jones, Tracy Wang and Christopher Granger. 7 to 8:30 p.m. EST. Virtual. Registration is free. They’ll cover:

• CAD/PAD: Identifying Risk & Summary of Recent Clinical Trials
• Extended Thromboprophylaxis: What Do We Know About Scoring, Risk and Contemporary Trials?
• Atrial Fibrillation: What Have We Learned About NOACs in Special Populations?
• Putting This All Together: Treatment Pyramid

To learn more, please visit: HCPLive Institutional Perspectives in Cardiology.

 

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:

May 26 — Manesh Patel

Weather.com/TWC India

Individuals Advised to Look Out for Symptoms of Heart Problems After COVID-19 Vaccine Shot

https://bit.ly/3g1Uv0M

May 27 — W. Schuyler Jones

TheDoctorWillSeeYouNow.com

Aspirin for Heart Disease? Less May Be More

https://www.thedoctorwillseeyounow.com/content/heart/art6404.html

May 27 — Manesh Patel

PennLive.com/Patriot News

CDC investigates a potential link between COVID-19 vaccines and heart problem seen in young people

https://bit.ly/3wSA650

May 30 — Harry Severance

CNBC.com

Covid has made it harder to be a health-care worker. Now, many are thinking of quitting

https://cnb.cx/34Hmwpk

*carried by 26 other news outlets

May 31 — Daniel Mark

PhysiciansWeekly.com

Dapagliflozin Is Cost-Effective in HFrEF, But Is It Affordable?

https://bit.ly/2RlEbzO

June 3 — Daniel Mark and Derek Chew

MDEdge.com

Dapagliflozin’s cost-effectiveness ‘intermediate’ for HFrEF

https://bit.ly/3vVI90V

June 3 — Myra Ellis

HealthLeaders

Nursing Researchers Safely Decrease Ventilation Time for Cardiac Surgery Patients

https://bit.ly/2Sc2xfx

Division of Cardiology Publications Indexed in PubMed May 27-June 2, 2021

Bernstein RA, Kamel H, Granger CB, Piccini JP, Sethi PP, Katz JM, Vives CA, Ziegler PD, Franco NC, Schwamm LH. Effect of Long-term Continuous Cardiac Monitoring vs Usual Care on Detection of Atrial Fibrillation in Patients With Stroke Attributed to Large- or Small-Vessel Disease: The STROKE-AF Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2021;325(21):2169-2177. PM: 34061145.

Bihlmeyer NA, Kwee LC, Clish CB, Deik AA, Gerszten RE, Pagidipati NJ, Laferrère B, Svetkey LP, Newgard CB, Kraus WE, Shah SH. Metabolomic profiling identifies complex lipid species and amino acid analogues associated with response to weight loss interventions. PLoS One 2021;16(5):e0240764. PM: 34043632.

Chow C, Mentz RJ, Greene SJ. Update on the Impact of Comorbidities on the Efficacy and Safety of Heart Failure Medications. Curr Heart Fail Rep 2021;18(3):132-143. PM: 33835396.

Garza MY, Rutherford MW, Adagarla B, Eisenstein E, Kumar KR, Zimmerman KO, Topaloglu U, Zozus M. Evaluating Site-Level Implementations of the HL7 FHIR Standard to Support eSource Data Exchange in Clinical Research. Stud Health Technol Inform 2021;281:397-401. PM:

34042773

Gutierrez JA, Samsky MD, Schulteis RD, Gu L, Swaminathan RV, Aday AW, Rao SV. Venous thromboembolism among patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at Veterans Health Administration Hospitals. Am Heart J 2021;237:1-4. PM: 33745899.

Jones WS, Mulder H, Wruck LM, Pencina MJ, Kripalani S, Muñoz D, Crenshaw DL, Effron MB, Re RN, Gupta K, Anderson RD, Pepine CJ, Handberg EM, Manning BR, Jain SK, Girotra S, Riley D, DeWalt DA, Whittle J, Goldberg YH, Roger VL, Hess R, Benziger CP, Farrehi, et al. Comparative Effectiveness of Aspirin Dosing in Cardiovascular Disease. N Engl J Med 2021;384(21):1981-1990. PM: 33999548.

Lowenstern A, Sheridan P, Wang TY, Boero I, Vemulapalli S, Thourani VH, Leon MB, Peterson ED, Brennan JM. Sex disparities in patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis. Am Heart J 2021;237:116-126. PM: 33722584.

Mentz RJ, Pulungan Z, Kim S, Yang M, Teigland C, Hilkert R, Djatche LM. Quality outcomes, healthcare resource utilization and costs in Medicare patients with chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction with and without a worsening event. J Med Econ 2021;24(1):698-705. PM: 33900874.

Pagidipati NJ, Svetkey LP. Time for a Renewed Focus on the DASH-Low Sodium Diet. J Am Coll Cardiol 2021;77(21):2635-2637. PM: 34045019.

Rymer JA, Webb L, McCall D, Hills MT, Wang TY. Differences in Preferences Between Clinicians and Patients for the Use and Dosing of Direct Oral Anticoagulants for Atrial Fibrillation. J Am Heart Assoc 2021;10(11):e020697. PM: 33998252.

Sliwa K, Singh K, Raspail L, Ojji D, Lam CSP, Thienemann F, Ge J, Banerjee A, Newby LK, Ribeiro ALP, Gidding S, Pinto F, Perel P, Prabhakaran D. The World Heart Federation Global Study on COVID-19 and Cardiovascular Disease. Glob Heart 2021;16(1):22. PM: 34040935.

Southwell BG, Wood JL, Navar AM. Función de los profesionales de la salud de rectificar la información errónea que tienen los pacientes más allá de corregir los hechos. Rev Panam Salud Publica 2021;45:e60. PM: 34035798.

Turakhia M, Sundaram V, Smith SN, Ding V, Michael Ho P, Kowey PR, Piccini JP, Foody J, Birmingham MC, Ianus J, Rajmane A, Mahaffey KW, et al. Efficacy of a centralized, blended electronic, and human intervention to improve direct oral anticoagulant adherence: Smartphones to improve rivaroxaban ADHEREnce in atrial fibrillation (SmartADHERE) a randomized clinical trial. Am Heart J 2021;237:68-78. PM: 33676886.