Highlights of the week:

New Faculty Spotlight: Brandy Patterson, MD

One of our newest faculty members, Brandy Patterson, MD, joined the Duke Heart faculty in July as an assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiology. She is a welcome addition to our growing cardio-oncology program and member of the general cardiology team, seeing patients at Duke Cardiology’s South Durham clinic; in Clinic 2F/2G, and in the Duke Cancer Center.

Patterson completed fellowship in cardiology at the University of Florida after earning her MD from the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, and completing residency at Allegheny General Hospital in Pennsylvania. During fellowship she became fully attuned to the lack of women enrolled in research clinical trials — particularly those focused on cardiovascular disease — and realized how much work was still needed to educate women about their risk for developing heart disease.

“I was lucky to join the fellowship program in Florida when I did. There were a large number of female faculty members there and they all understood this problem,” Patterson said. “Many women attribute early-onset heart symptoms simply to getting older, or to putting on a bit of weight.  I was astounded by the number of female patients I was seeing that did not recognize heart disease as a woman’s disease. I knew I needed to do something about this.”

After fellowship, she joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania where her clinical focus was on treating women with heart disease. From there, she headed to the University of Virginia where she launched a number of efforts aimed at women – she started a women’s heart health group called ‘Club Red’; organized regular community talks for women; partnered with a nutritionist to hold regular community cooking classes; and led walks in the community, all to better engage with women around living a heart-healthy lifestyle. She was able to take her messaging further when she became a regular guest on the local NBC news affiliate in Charlottesville, where they had a medical news segment called ‘House Call’ and then developed one with Patterson in mind, called ‘Straight Talk MD’.

As these community efforts were gaining momentum, a fellow faculty member left UVA and Patterson inherited a number of her patients — many of whom had received treatment for breast and other cancers. As she saw more and more heart patients with a history of cancer treatment, she became increasingly interested in understanding the cardiotoxicity associated with the drugs her patients were or had been taking. Her exploration into this area led her to spearhead the creation of UVA’s cardio-oncology program with two other cardiologists there – a team she led as medical director until her departure for Duke.

Patterson, who was raised in South Florida, was drawn to medicine from an early age. Her mother, an operating room nurse, periodically brought her to the hospital in which she worked. There, she had ample opportunity to observe her mother’s work, her interactions with colleagues and patients, and to learn about the OR space. Her father, a former professional baseball player who pitched for the New York Yankees, endured a number of injuries over time that required surgical intervention, rehabilitation and physical therapy.

“I really developed a deep understanding of what the patient experience is like by living in the footsteps of not only my mother, but my father and his experiences with numerous orthopedic surgeries and the toll it took on us as a family,” Patterson said while reflecting on her choice to pursue a career in medicine. “I wanted to develop and maintain a personal connection with people to increase patient’s healthy life years without disability.”

Having grown up with athletic parents, she was involved in multiple sports from an early age and has always been drawn to living a healthy lifestyle, eating right and exercising. She says she has always has been a big advocate for the joy of movement and to following a Mediterranean-style diet. Patterson and husband Richard Shannon, MD, have a 7-year-old daughter. They enjoy playing golf and tennis, as well as hiking, swimming, and traveling.

Shannon was recruited to Duke two years ago. When the opportunity presented itself for Patterson to join Duke Heart’s growing cardio-oncology program, she jumped at the chance.

“I am very humbled to be a part of this prestigious group and am looking forward to seeing where this opportunity leads. Duke has an amazing health system and this is a tremendous opportunity for us,” she added.

If you have not yet had the opportunity to meet Brandy, we hope you’ll take time to do so. We are thrilled to have her as a member of the Duke Heart team!

 

Daubert & Team Receive $7.9M NHLBI Grant to Examine CAC Scoring

Congratulations to Melissa Daubert and her co-investigators at Johns Hopkins and Wake Forest University. Daubert and her research partners have received a $7.9 million, five-year R01 grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to study the use of coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring to identify who is the most likely to benefit from statin therapy and in whom preventive therapy with statins may not yield a meaningful clinical benefit. CAC PREVENTABLE, an ancillary study to the Pragmatic Evaluation of Events and Benefits of Lipid-lowering in Older Adults (PREVENTABLE) Trial, will enroll 10,000 participants age 75 years and older to undergo baseline CAC scanning and high-sensitivity troponin testing. The study will be led by Melissa Daubert, MD at Duke; Michael Blaha, MD, MPH at Johns Hopkins University, and Nicholas Pajewski, PhD at Wake Forest University.

“By directly visualizing atherosclerotic plaque with CAC scanning and measuring subclinical myocardial injury with high-sensitivity troponin, we believe CAC PREVENTABLE is the most promising for informing person-centered care in older adults,” says Melissa Daubert, MD, associate professor of medicine in cardiology at Duke and director of the Multimodality Imaging Core Laboratory at Duke Clinical Research Institute. “CAC PREVENTABLE could fundamentally change the approach to preventive therapy, potentially limiting overtreatment and focusing statin therapy on those most likely to benefit.”

Current guideline-approved risk prediction models are heavily weighted by age, indiscriminately assigning high-risk status and therefore recommending treatment for nearly all older adults even before the age of 75. Accurate person-centered risk prediction at older ages remains unachievable using traditional risk factor models as these approaches do not capture lifetime cumulative exposure or account for individual resiliency to disease. It also raises concerns about overmedication, drug-drug interactions, lack of personalization, and misallocation of limited healthcare resources in an aging population which often requires multiple pharmacotherapies.

Grant funding began on Sept. 1, 2021. The team expects to enroll their first patient in March, 2022.

Congratulations, Melissa – we look forward to hearing more about this as the study progresses!

 

2022 Incoming Cardiology Fellows Announced

We are pleased to announce the newest members of the Duke Heart team — our incoming cardiology fellows for July, 2022. We are thrilled to have them join us!

Andrew Andreae, MD, joining us after completing residency at Duke; a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.

Michael Cosiano, MD, joining us after completing residency at Duke; a graduate of Weill Cornell Medicine.

David Elliott, MD, joining us after completing residency at Duke; a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine.

Nathan Goodwin, MD, joining us after completing residency at Duke; a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Medicine.

Aman Kansal, MD, joining us after completing residency at Duke; a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine.

Allie Levin, MD, joining us after completing residency at Massachusetts General Hospital; a graduate of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Anthony Lin, MD, joining us after completing residency at the University of California at San Francisco; a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine.

Paula Rambarat, MD, joining us after completing residency with Massachusetts General Hospital; a graduate of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Jessica Regan, MD, joining us after completing residency at Duke; a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.

Belal Suleiman, MD, joining us after completing residency at University of Texas Southwestern; a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine.

Congratulations to all!

Photo Submission: Joey Harrington, Journal Club

Our Journal club met this week — shown here is cardiology fellow Joey Harrington (with Tillie) presenting on the Danish LOOP Study along with Bernie Gersh. Photo courtesy of Christopher Granger.

Shout-out to Corley!

We received a note this week in appreciation of cardiology fellow, Ali Corley:

“Anna Lisa, ICC fellows were out of town, so Dr. Corley covered them at the VA today. She did a fantastic job and delivered several stents in the process. She will do great in her ICC year.” — Tony Gutierrez

Nicely done, Ali!

HF section Gathered for Holiday Cheer at the Mentz House.

The HF Section gathered together for a Holiday Party at Rob Mentz’ house on Friday Night. The group had an enjoyable evening with representation from the fellows, APPs, OHT/VAD coordinator teams, research team, cardiologists and surgeons. It was so nice to be able to get together as a group while enjoying a beautiful evening outdoors. Festive food, drinks and karaoke rounded out the evening. Thank you to the whole group for an amazing year!

 

 

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Cardiology Grand Rounds

December 7: Visiting lecture with Anubha Agarwal of Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine. 5 p.m. Webex.

SI4R Training Workshop

December 14: Stepping in 4-Respect (SI4R) Workshop for Duke Division of Cardiology. 5-7 p.m. Zoom (Details in email from Kim Dorman)

As part of the Department of Medicine Civility Champion initiatives, a 2-hr zoom workshop for all faculty, staff, and trainees throughout all DOM divisions has been developed. Civility Champions are trained faculty, fellows, and chief residents who provide informal support in response to incidents of bias, harassment, or other unprofessional behaviors, and to help those affected understand their options for intervention and reporting. People generally come to Civility Champions after the fact, and the Champions debrief their experiences every quarter.

The workshop that Drs. John Duronville, Jane Gagliardi, Anita Kelsey, Camille Frazier-Mills, Daniella Zipkin, Laura Previll, and Sophia Weinmann will be presenting to the Cardiology clinical faculty is entitled Stepping In 4-Respect. It is being offered twice and is a new component of these civility efforts designed to teach faculty the skills needed to step in (be an “upstander”) in the moment, with a particular focus on race-, ethnicity- and gender-based incidents. This workshop is supported by Dr. Kathleen Cooney, Chair of the DOM, and will be provided to each division’s faculty over the coming months.

Please be sure to attend the workshop on Dec. 14 if you missed the one on Nov. 30. Additional details about registration, the structure and goals of the workshop appeared in the email invitation.

Duke Well-Being Ambassador Virtual Course

January 11 – March 15: The Well-being Essentials for Learning Life-Balance (WELL-B) weekly webinar series begins January 11, 2022 at 3 p.m. EST. For only one hour a week for 10 weeks, healthcare workers can learn about the science and practice of well-being from Dr. Bryan Sexton, Dr. Carrie Adair, and Dr. Kyle Rehder. These strategies can enhance your well-being, and through sharing, the well-being of your co-workers. Available to all Duke Health employees and those outside of Duke as well. More information: bit.ly/dukewellb. Offered by the Duke Center for Healthcare Safety and Quality.

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. Submissions by Noon, Wednesdays, to be considered for weekend inclusion. Note: Pulse will be taking a break for the holidays from Dec. 26 through Jan. 2; we’ll return on Jan. 9, 2022!

Duke Heart in the News:

November 24 — Jacob Schroder

WNCN CBS-17* (Raleigh, NC)

NC family thankful after father’s new generation artificial heart replaced with donor heart at Duke

https://duke.is/9mb9a

*story also carried by Fox-8 Greensboro, Fox-43 Myrtle Beach & NBC-10 Norfolk

November 24 — Tracy Wang

tctMD

Select COVID-19 Patients May Benefit From Postdischarge Anticoagulation

https://duke.is/jsp4y

November 26 — Jacob Schroder

WWAY ABC-3 (Wilmington, NC)

Shallotte family thankful after father’s new generation artificial heart replaced with donor heart at Duke

https://duke.is/c3eww

November 30 — Joanna Cavalier

Healio/Cardiology

EHR data reveal ‘red flag’ comorbidities years before cardiac amyloidosis diagnosis

https://duke.is/zubb8

November 30 — William Kraus

AARP

How 11 Minutes of Exercise Can Help You Live Longer

https://duke.is/m5z7z

December 1 — Kevin Thomas

Physician’s Weekly

Recognizing the Experience of Racial Minorities in the Cardiology Workforce

https://duke.is/vwf9t