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Duke Heart Pulse – December 11th 2022

By Manesh Patel, M.D. in Uncategorized on December 11, 2022.

Highlights of the week:

Gutierrez Named Durham VA Cath Lab Director

Antonio Gutierrez, MD, has been named Cardiac Catheterization Lab Director at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). The position was effective as of Dec. 1.

Gutierrez is a nationally-recognized academic interventional cardiologist specializing in the management of coronary and peripheral arterial disease. He is the recipient of a highly prestigious VA Career Development Award, which provides five years of protected federal research funding and support. During this time, Gutierrez is focusing on the development and implementation of a virtual, home-based, supervised exercise therapy program for Veterans with peripheral arterial disease.

Gutierrez currently serves on the editorial board of Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions. He has consistently shown excellent leadership skills, having previously served as a Duke Chief Resident, received the 2018 CRT Young Leadership Award, and participated in the 2021 ACC Emerging Faculty Leadership Academy.

He completed internship and residency training at Duke; cardiology and vascular medicine fellowships at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and interventional fellowship at Duke prior to joining the Duke and Durham VA faculty in 2017. Gutierrez is taking over this role from Rajesh Swaminathan, MD, who will now focus on leadership responsibilities as Section Chief and with Regional VISN-6, the VA Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network.

In this new role, Dr. Gutierrez will build on VAMC Cath lab innovation, focus on Cath lab staff education, and continue to expand the robust site-based research program.

Congratulations, Tony!

This week: CGR Celebrates Tracy Wang, MD

Be sure to join us on Tuesday evening, Dec. 13 at 5 p.m. via Webex. We’ll celebrate Tracy Wang, MD, who is now serving as Chief of Comparative Effectiveness Research at the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).

Shout-out to 7W, 6E Team Members

A big shout-out this week to members of our Duke Heart team. We received the following message from Lisa Clark Pickett, Chief Medical Officer, Duke University Hospital, in follow-up to a patient compliment.

“Greetings, Heart Team!

We received this glowing compliment about the Heart Team and our awesome (general surgery) resident, Holly Lewis! Thank you all for your commitment to excellence, compassion, and efficiency! I was so impressed! I hope that you will share this, personally, with the heart nurses, as I do not have their last names listed to allow me to thank them in this email!

You are all living out Duke Values so visibly, and for that I am most thankful.

Best wishes to you all for a lovely holiday season.” –Lisa

“Excellent care from admission to discharge. Everyone was courteous and professional, from admitting, Pre-op, OR, ICU, nursing, and the physicians. In 7 West, Darby and Gil, and on 6 East, Brooke, Leah, Marjorie, Amanda, Scott, Taylor Q, Demetria were all fantastic. Extra special thanks to Nurses David and Lena who took care of me for 3 days! They were incredible and I really appreciated how comfortable they made my stay. Also want to thank Dr. Holly Lewis for expediting my discharge. She personally walked me down to X-ray twice to help get my chest tube out ASAP!” — a grateful patient (name withheld for privacy)

“Outstanding, team! Thanks so much!” — Chantal Howard, Chief Nursing & Patient Care Services Officer, Duke University Hospital

You all continue to make a great impression on our patients — keep up the excellent work!

Ulrich Departing DUHS at Year End

The upcoming departure of Kate Ulrich was shared earlier this week in a Leadership Update. The announcement was made by Mary Ann Fuchs, Vice President of Patient Care and System Chief Nurse Executive and Clif Flintom, Service Line Vice President of Perioperative Services for Duke University Health System

“Dear Colleagues,

With mixed feelings, we announce that Kate Ulrich, MS, BSN, RN, NEA-BC, is leaving her position as assistant vice president of Perioperative Nursing at DUHS to take a leadership role at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Florida. In her new role, Kate will serve as senior vice president of perioperative services at Tampa General Hospital, a 1,040-bed hospital and one of the largest hospitals in Florida.

Kate has been at DUHS since 2011 and has held positions with increasing levels of responsibility, including her current role as the first AVP for DUHS Perioperative Nursing. Kate is proud of being a strong advocate of the nursing profession and advancing nursing practice across perioperative services. Her advocacy for nursing has influenced perioperative practice standards across DUHS, improving the quality and safety of patient care.

She begins her new position in mid-January and will remain at DUHS until Dec. 31. Tara Walczak-Daege, DNP, RN, NE-BC, CNOR, associate chief nursing officer, Duke Raleigh Hospital, will cover Kate’s role until a permanent replacement is found.

Kate is known as an advocate for patients and leaves behind a legacy of always putting the patient first. She and her team of more than 700 staff provided clinical and administrative operations that supported over 79,000 surgeries and procedures in the most recently completed fiscal year across DUHS’s surgical platforms, ambulatory surgery centers and peri-anesthesia care units.

Kate has been a tremendous leader as Perioperative Services has transformed from a single-entity service line to a health system service line encompassing acute care and ambulatory surgery platforms across multiple campuses. We are grateful for the many contributions she has made to DUHS nursing and Perioperative Services.

Please join us in congratulating Kate on this exciting new phase of her career and thank her for all she has done to serve our patients and teams.”

Kate has been an important partner to the Duke Heart team – especially our surgical teams– and a wonderful colleague. We wish her all the best!

Reminder: ORA Holiday Deadlines

The Office of Research Administration (ORA) will operate with a reduced staff during the holiday season to allow team members time to recharge. To help ORA respond as timely as possible to your needs, please plan in advance based on the following:

Last two weeks of December

For any transactions with due dates between December 19 – January 2, please have submitted in ready-form to ORA by Thursday, December 15 to ensure there is adequate time and staffing to respond to your needs.

Please note: the next NIH SBIR/STTR deadline is Jan. 5, 2023, and the internal deadline is 8 a.m. on Dec. 28, 2022. Because this deadline falls in the last two weeks in December when ORA will be operating with reduced staff and because these award mechanisms are usually complex and require careful institutional coordination before submission:

Please complete Intent to Submit for all planned SBIR/STTR applications no later than Dec. 5, 2022; and
Please plan to route a submission-ready application no later than Dec. 15, 2022; if more time is needed, please submit a late waiver request so that ORA can plan for appropriate coverage to support these applications.

For anything submitted in the last two weeks of December that can wait until after the holiday break, ORA will be back up to speed with a full team on Jan. 3, 2023 and will look forward to managing all pending issues at that time.

Additional Reminders:

We’re seeing improvements with PPE throughout DUH – great job! It is vital that we all remain vigilant with masking, hand hygiene, PPE, and other safe behaviors to prevent the spread of infection. Please pay special attention to the proper wearing and securing of gowns and be mindful of PPE compliance. Thank you for all you do to keep everyone safe and healthy.
Next week will be our final Pulse of 2022! We’ll break for two weeks and return on Jan. 8, 2023!

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Cardiology Grand Rounds

Dec. 13: Celebration for Dr. Tracy Wang. 5 p.m. Webex.

Dec. 20: Our featured speaker will be Dr. Michel Khouri. Webex.

Dec. 27: No CGR this week.

CME & Other Events

Dec. 19: PDC Annual Member Meeting. 5:30-6:30 p.m. Zoom.

The meeting will be recorded and posted the following day. Submit questions to: PDC-President@dm.duke.edu. Agenda items will include:

Financial Year In Review
Review of Retirement Portfolio Performance from CAPTRUST
The Path Forward for 2023: Duke Health Integrated Practice
Anticipated Member Asset Distribution Plan

Call for abstracts: 2023 Duke Health Quality and Safety Conference

The virtual poster submission period for the 2023 Duke Health Quality and Safety Conference is now open. The deadline for submission is Wednesday, Dec. 14. The 2023 Conference will be held the weeks of March 13 and 20, with an in-person event on Thursday, March 23.

For more information and to submit your abstract, please click here.

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.

Duke Heart in the News:

November 27 — Soderblom family

Monroe (NC) Enquirer Journal

Monroe ‘miracle’ baby receives rare partial heart transplant

https://duke.is/9wkrp

December 5 — Amy Berkman (pediatrics)

Health Thoroughfare

Young Cancer Survivors See Higher Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

https://duke.is/vr9vt

December 5 — Amy Berkman

Medicalxpress.com

Young cancer survivors face elevated risk of developing cardiovascular disease, but factors that may impact this risk