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Duke Heart Pulse — November 26, 2023

November 26, 2023 / Leave a comment

Chief’s message:

Happy Thanksgiving to all — I wanted to send a brief note expressing gratitude and appreciation for all the things you do for our patients and our Duke Heart Team. Over the last several years we have spent time focusing on ensuring we keep our patients and each other safe and healthy. At the same time, we have had an unwavering commitment to train the next generation of leaders in cardiovascular medicine while refocusing our energies on making meaningful discoveries. This has all been on the backdrop of ever-changing landscape in healthcare, where we are fortunate to be part of a system like Duke. This work has been hard and at times difficult to accomplish our missions, leaving us feeling stressed and out of energy.

The Thanksgiving holiday is a time to spend with friends and family catching up and reflecting on the past year, with gratitude for all the things we have. Reflecting on the last year, I am in awe of the amazing effort by so many, the impact of the discoveries and research we conduct, and the care we have provided – at times through silent acts, often in the service of others. Personally, the relationships we have with each other, and the example that you all set for our patients, colleagues, and our teams helps in part provide the fuel and energy to accomplish our missions.

I hope you all get some time with your family and loved ones over the upcoming weeks. I also want to thank those of you that are helping cover our clinical services so we can continue to help all of the patients and our community that need care during these times.

As we continue forward in service and purpose of our missions and patients, we hope you have some time to focus on your own health and can recharge for the upcoming year.

Highlights of the week:

Latest STS Star Ratings for Thoracic Surgery Released

Congratulations to our outstanding thoracic surgery team! The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) has posted the General Thoracic Surgery Database Fall 2023 Analysis that includes results for cases between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2023. The Star Ratings for both Duke University Hospital and Duke Raleigh Hospital continue to excellent!

The Star Ratings for both DUH and DRaH for the previous and current harvest are represented in the chart shown here.

Way to go!

Annual Turkey Bowl Matchup

The tradition continues! Many thanks to all who participated as players and officials in the annual Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving Day – and thanks to all our fans who came to cheer the teams on. The annual Duke vs. VA matchup resulted in a 21-21 tie!

Kudos to Regan!

We received a note of kudos for cardiology fellow Jessica Regan this week.

“Hi Anna Lisa, I just wanted to send kudos to Jess R. for outstanding work on her overnight shift last night. She helped with a complex post-procedure patient with grace and total professionalism. I am so proud of her as a young doctor and former Duke chief. Hope you pass along how thankful we were in the lab that she helped us care for this patient.” – Jenn Rymer, MD

Nicely done, Jess!

Shout-out to Salah!

We received a shout-out to cardiology fellow Husam Salah this week.

“First-year cardiology fellow Husam Salah stepped up to cover two CICU shifts this week at the last minute for unanticipated illnesses. Much appreciated Husam!” – Anna Lisa Chamis, MD

Thanks, Husam!!!

Domino Heart Transplant Success for Children with Congenital Heart Disease

When three-month-old Asher Hobby needed a heart transplant, his parents eagerly agreed to help save another life at the same time. In June 2023 at Duke Health, Asher received a new heart from a deceased donor — then the healthy valves and arteries from Asher’s old heart were transplanted into another infant with heart disease.

Months later, both children are growing stronger and healthier every day.

The innovation, known as a domino heart transplant, builds on the technique of partial heart transplantation pioneered at Duke in 2022 and may increase the number of hearts available for children in need. Instead of using mechanical valves that require multiple revision surgeries over time, the partial heart transplant uses human valves that will grow along with the child.

“It’s probably one of the biggest advances in congenital heart surgery in the last 40 years,” said Duke pediatric heart surgeon Joseph Turek, MD, who led both surgeries. “It’s a wonderful setup where two children can benefit from one initial gift.”

Greensboro, NC residents Kayle Cooper and Drew Hobby became concerned when their newborn son Asher stopped eating normally. Local doctors discovered Asher’s heart muscle was damaged beyond repair. Cooper and Hobby brought Asher to Duke, where he was hospitalized and placed on the national heart transplant waitlist.

Several months later, Asher’s parents got the news they’d been waiting for; Asher had been matched with a donor heart. The opportunity came with a chance to help another child with heart disease, one who needed new heart valves. Although Asher’s heart muscle was damaged, his heart valves were healthy. “When we were asked if we would like for Asher’s heart valves to be donated, we immediately said ‘yes, of course we would!’” Cooper said.

First, Asher’s heart was removed and replaced with the donor’s heart. Then, instead of discarding Asher’s old heart, surgeons harvested its healthy valves and arteries and transplanted them into the other child at Duke the next day. Four months later, both children are growing and meeting important developmental milestones.

Turek hopes more pediatric heart centers will adopt the domino heart transplant approach to save more babies’ lives.

“Twenty percent of infants waiting for a heart transplant won’t get one,” he said. “Finding a way to double the number of patients who can receive the gift of organ donation is going to help so many children who may have otherwise died waiting on a heart transplant. My mission is to spread this idea to other institutions and make it available for kids across the country and hopefully across the world.”

*This story is also featured in a Duke Health video, which can be viewed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/E7roMzDCeAU

Ginsburg to Receive PMWC Luminary Award

Congratulations to Duke adjunct professor of medicine in cardiology, Geoffrey S. Ginsburg, MD, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer for the NIH All of Us Research Program. Ginsburg has been selected to receive the Precision Medicine World Conference (PMWC) Luminary Award! He was selected by the PMWC for his pioneering work in personalized and genomic medicine.

Through Ginsburg’s research efforts and collaborations, he has made significant contributions to the fields of oncology, infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic disorders. He has also served as an outstanding leader in the field — as co-chair of the National Academies Roundtable on Genomic and Precision Health and as founder and inaugural president of the Global Genomics Medicine Consortium (G2MC), as well as co-chair of the International 100K+ Cohorts Consortium.

The award will be presented to Ginsburg in January when the 2024 PMWC convenes at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley, CA.

Congratulations, Geoff!

This week! 5th Annual Invented at Duke Celebration

Duke’s Office for Translation & Commercialization (OTC) will hold its 2023 ‘Invented at Duke’ celebration next week on Tuesday, November 28, 2023, from 4:30-7 p.m. at Duke’s Penn Pavilion. Their annual showcase of Duke inventors and inventions will include remarks from Vincent Price, president of Duke University, Robin Rasor, head of OTC, and Jungsang Kim, the Schiciano Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and co-founder of IonQ.

Whether you’re already part of the Duke entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem or you’re just starting to explore how to bring your research out to the public – or perhaps you’re a member of the wider Triangle technology commercialization ecosystem – there will be something to learn and celebrate.

The event is free, but registration is required. You’ll receive an e-ticket to present at the door. The attire is business casual. Parking can be found at the Bryan Center Parking Garage – follow event signs and tell the attendant at the entrance and exit that you’re there for Invented at Duke and you will receive free parking.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

November is Native American Heritage Month; Men’s Health month, and Lung Cancer Awareness month.
Masking is strongly recommended throughout all clinical areas during respiratory virus season, from now through early March.

Cardiology Grand Rounds

Nov. 28: Topic TBD, presenter TBD. 5 p.m., DN2002 or via Zoom.

All 2023 Duke Cardiology Grand Rounds recordings are uploaded to Warpwire. Recordings can be accessed via this link: https://duke.is/DukeCGR; NET ID and password required.

CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference

Nov. 29: Match Day Review. Zoom only.

Dec. 1: Stress Testing with Anna Lisa Chamis. Noon, Zoom only.

Call for Abstracts: Duke’s Annual Quality & Safety Conference

Save the date for Duke’s Annual Quality and Safety Conference scheduled for April 11 in the Trent Semans Center. Click here to view Abstract Guidelines. Abstracts are due by 5 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2023. Late submissions will not be accepted. Contact cynthia.gordon@duke.edu or kyle.rehder@duke.edu with any questions.

A&H Winterfest 2023

The dates for Winterfest Marketplace 2023, the annual holiday art show and sale hosted by Arts & Health at Duke, will take place across six Thursdays in November and December, local North Carolina-based artisans will display and sell their work to Duke Health employees, visitors and patients in the main concourse of Duke Hospital.

The event begins November 2 and runs until December 14. During Winterfest, art will be available for purchase on Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Featured artisans will include Beth Ann Taylor, Chapel Hill Woodturners, Bonnie Toney, and Justin Leitner.

A portion of the proceeds from Winterfest will go back to Arts & Health at Duke, which provides support to patients through music, visual art activities and journaling. This is a great opportunity to support local artists, the Arts & Health programming at Duke Health, and to score some beautiful holiday gifts for loved ones!

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 17 — Duke University

Cardiology Advisor

Older Age, More Comorbidities Predict Favorable BMI Outcomes Among Youth

November 20 — Kunal Patel

Medical Product Outsourcing

Paragonix Achieves First-in-Human Use of BAROguard Donor Lung Preservation

November 20 — Manesh Patel

Medscape

Asundexian Phase 3 AF Study Halted for Lack of Efficacy

November 21 — Duke Raleigh Hospital

Triad City Beat

Violence against doctors and nurses is rising. A new NC law aims to help protect them

November 21 — Suresh Balu

STAT

How the shakeup at OpenAI underscores the need for AI standards in health care

Duke Heart Pulse — November 19, 2023

November 19, 2023 / Leave a comment

Highlights of the week:

Happy Thanksgiving!

In advance of the Thanksgiving holiday, we hope each of you – whether you’re staying close to home or traveling to see loved ones — has a safe and wonderful holiday! Thank you for all you do each day to care for our patients and to advance our collective understanding of cardiovascular disease and treatments. We all contribute in myriad ways to the success of Duke Heart and to the relationships we have with our patients and our community. We are truly blessed to have a terrific team. Enjoy the holiday!

AHA Scientific Sessions Recap

The American Heart Association’s Annual Scientific Sessions held in Philadelphia last weekend saw terrific representation by Duke faculty and fellows! We had two Late-Breaking sessions, 21 presentations, 19 moderated sessions, and more than 38 poster presentations by Duke team members. Impressive!

Our Duke team included the following authors, presenters, and moderators/discussants:

Kevin Thomas, Larry Jackson, Emily Obrien, Svati Shah, Jason Katz, Joseph Lerman, Brittany Zwischenberger, Nishant Shah, Schuyler Jones, Stephen Greene, Jennifer Rymer, Vishal Rao, Christopher Granger, Marat Fudim, William Kraus, Dennis Narcisse, Fawaz Alenezi, Leanna Ross, Melissa Daubert, Bradi Granger, Josephine Harrington, Andrew Landstrom, Jonathan Piccini, Manesh Patel, Sana Al-Khatib, Renato Lopes, Sudarshan Rajagopal, Camille Frazier-Mills, Sean Pokorney, Sarah Snow, Zak Loring, Robert Mentz, Jessica Duran, Dan Friedman, Balim Senman, and Alina Nicoara.

Highlights from across the weekend included:

Jason Katz, participated in the Contemporary Debates in STEMI. This education session was planned by the Committee on Scientific Sessions Program and was moderated by Chris Granger. The pro/con debates addressed controversial areas of management in ACS. Particularly, this debate addresses an important issue in ICU care. Katz reviewed a few case studies that suggest implementing a risk-based triage strategy could be a better alternative to the current strategy where patients with STEMI are typically admitted to the CICU.

In summary, the CICU admission decision for STEMI patients will continue to be based on individual judgment and traditional protocols rather than robust and evidence-based risk prediction models.

As part of a Saturday morning session examining controversies in high-risk PCI procedures focusing on calcium modification and bifurcation lesions, Jennifer Rymer participated in a debate on a one-stent vs. two-stent strategy for Bifurcation Disease, detailing scenarios in which a one-stent approach would be appropriate.

Rymer emphasized that her position in favor of a provisional, one-stent strategy should be the default for many, but not all bifurcation lesions.

Pointing first to a meta-analysis of nine randomized controlled trials co-authored by her debate opponent Margaret McEntegart, Rymer noted that the one-stent strategy showed reduced mortality compared to a two-stent strategy over a longer-term follow-up.

Rymer reviewed further evidence from the Nordic bifurcation study, EBC Two, and EBC main trials, among others, showing that the provisional single-stent strategy was more favorable than a two-stent strategy. Still, Rymer acknowledged that the one-stent strategy is not the definitive answer in every case.

“There’s significant evidence that a provisional stent strategy with often one stent can be a viable strategy for many bifurcation lesions,” Rymer said. “However, it’s key to assess and examine the anatomy and features of the bifurcation lesions, particularly within the left-main bifurcation. There isn’t always a one-size-fits-all approach in any aspect of medicine and certainly in these lesions there’s not.”

In rebuttal, McEntegart largely agreed that a one-stent strategy is best when treating simple bifurcations, while highlighting the exceptions — when treating more complex bifurcations — in which a two-stent strategy is a better approach.

As a discussant for the late-breaking science session “Heart Failure – VADS, Kids, and Money,” Stephen Greene shared details of recent heart failure trials and reflected on how patient outcomes can be improved by treating heart failure with a greater sense of urgency, more efficient trial enrollment, and a focus on implementation.

He shared examples of innovative trial designs such as the CHIEF-HF study and TRANSFORM-HF trial that reduced the burden on patients and sites and then emphasized a focus on implementation as the missing link in heart failure outcomes.

“Even when we know what is quote-unquote best for patients — we know the answer, what makes them live longer, stay out of the hospital, feel better, spend more time at home with their families — history has told us that we do not routinely act on this information,” Greene said. “And, as a result, the grim reality is that every day in this country, many patients with heart failure are dying and being hospitalized without ever having the opportunity to receive medicines definitively proven to prevent these events, despite the patient being eligible for them.”

Greene cited “persistent and pervasive” gaps in the use of guideline-directed medical therapy, including less than one in 10 eligible patients being discharged on quadruple medical therapy, and less than one in three eligible patients going home on triple therapy.

“While of course quadruple therapy should be our goal for HFrEF patients, just think how much better off it would be for the heart failure community if we did complete, equitable, and timely initiation of even just three generic heart failure medications,” Greene said.

“Traditional scientific investment in heart failure is largely focused on discovery science, and thankfully we’ve gotten enormous therapeutic advancements, but with these advancements comes the responsibility to get these therapies to our patients. … Regardless of any specific implementation strategy, there’s an overarching need to change the culture of care from therapeutic hesitancy to one of therapeutic urgency.”

Marat Fudim shared predictions for the future of treatment for patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) during an afternoon session packed with attendees eager to better understand what’s next. A more tailored approach with endo- and phenotyping, he said, is what will advance treatment for these patients, and machine learning may be able to help.

First outlining the need for more specialized research in HFpEF, Fudim noted that the subgroup makes up more than half the heart failure population and continues to grow. Yet the most helpful research for this subgroup has largely come by happenstance.

“In the past, we have applied therapeutic successes from the HFrEF space, which is much easier to diagnose and conceptualize, and applied that to the heart failure preserved ejection fraction space,” Fudim said. “We’ve really seen no positive trials over the two decades that we’ve been testing it until we started getting lucky with therapies which are actually primarily not cardio-centric — cardiometabolic drugs such as SGLT2s, GLP1RAs.”

But that approach will not be sustainable moving forward, he said.

“The future of HFpEF, I believe, will be looking as follows — we will have to do phenotyping,” Fudim said. “You can call it endotyping or phenotyping, and it will have to involve some form of superficial or deep phenotyping looking at clinical variables as well as biopsies or blood work that might tell us a little bit more about the patient, and then apply specific mechanisms of treatment to the diagnostically identified mechanism of pathology.”

Fudim provided the example of a case where spironolactone was found to be more therapeutically beneficial when matched to the proper phenotypical group.

“Certain groups will simply benefit more from certain interventions, even possible interventions found not to be significantly beneficial,” he said.

Machine learning is already applied with screening echocardiograms, Fudim noted, and could also be useful in identifying specific disease processes and matching with specific drugs, as well as identifying patients for future clinical trials where specific endotypes or phenotypes could be matched to a specific drug.

During an early morning Sunday session highlighting the pros and cons of controversial therapies for arrhythmia management in special and vulnerable patient populations, Sana Al-Khatib, shared evidence against catheter ablation for supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) in pregnant patients.

Following Kamala Tamirisa who took the “pro” position in favor of catheter ablation for SVT to avoid drug therapy, Al-Khatib argued that ablation should be avoided in these patients. Despite the presentation title, Al-Khatib cited guidelines and an expert consensus statement recommending that medications can and should be used to safely manage these patients. Al-Khatib went on to recommend that ablation could be considered either before or after pregnancy.

“Of course, I completely agree with my friend Dr. Tamirisa that we have to optimize safety, we have to make sure that we know about the properties of these medications that we use, when we can use them, when we cannot use them, dose them appropriately, see if we can get away with lower doses,” Al-Khatib said. “In fact, many of us have been able to manage pregnant women with lower doses of these medications.”

A lot has changed since the 2002 AFFIRM study showed a rhythm-control strategy offered no survival advantage over a rate-control strategy, according to Jonathan Piccini. On the contrary, data from more recent observational and randomized trials demonstrate that early initiation of rhythm control in patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib) can improve outcomes, Piccini said.

Presenting as part of a learning studio session on treating patients with AFib, Piccini reviewed recent evidence on early rhythm control such as the EAST-AFNET 4 trial, and discussed the applications of early rhythm control among different types of patients.

Which patients benefit most from early rhythm control?

“Some of the greatest benefit may be in patients who have more comorbidities,” Piccini said.

“I’d argue that we have good data that early rhythm control improves outcomes in persons with Afib and there appears to be a pretty durable 20% relative risk reduction in cardiovascular events. Persons with heart failure, left ventricular dysfunction, high degrees of comorbidity, and who have AFib progression or who are at risk for developing AFib progression are particularly important candidates for early rhythm control.”

Renato Lopes detailed how randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and real-world evidence can help inform clinical practice and shared examples of successful RCTs for atrial fibrillation.

“We always ask this question, what is the best type of study?” Lopes said. “Is it randomized trials, or is it the real-world type of study? …The right answer should be another question, ‘What is the question that I will answer?’ Because depending on the answer that I want to have from a clinical perspective, I might have different types of studies that might be the best.”

Randomized controlled trials are the gold standard for determining treatment effect, he added. “I really need randomization to be able to define cause and effect relationships.”

However, for determining real-world application and understanding patterns of care — such as what dose people are using of a particular drug — real-world evidence studies are a better approach. So, a combination of the two types of studies is helpful to support clinical decisions, he continued.

Lopes summarized two pivotal trials on atrial fibrillation with Apixaban — ARISTOTLE and AVERROES. Both RCTs, ARISTOTLE compared Apixaban to Warfarin, and AVERROES compared Apixaban against Aspirin. ARISTOTLE was able to show that Apixaban was not only non-inferior to Warfarin, but superior to it in terms of reducing stroke, risk of bleeding, and all-cause mortality.

“We couldn’t believe when we saw that we were able to meet every single endpoint of the trial. That’s what we call a home run,” Lopes said. “To hit every single endpoint, preserving your alpha was a really unique moment.”

During a session on heart failure guidelines and implementation of therapies, Stephen Greene advocated for rapid titration of quadruple therapy for every eligible heart failure patient. Greene outlined the extreme risk associated with heart failure and emphasized the need for a more urgent therapeutic response. The status quo approach of introducing medications slowly using a one-move-at-a-time, serial, and selective approach, he said, has substantial risks associated as it can take 28 to 58 weeks before guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) is fully implemented at the targeted doses.

Simultaneous or rapid-sequence initiation of GDMT, on the other hand, treats heart failure with the urgency that it deserves, he said, and the clinical benefits become noticeable within days to weeks.

“If you delay therapy, even a couple of weeks in an eligible patient, you’re exposing them to excess clinical risk,” Greene said. “And when you remember that the benefits of all four of these drugs are completely additive to each other, and when you further remember that we’re talking about an extreme risk condition that needs all the help it can get, we need to fully take advantage of these medicines ASAP.”

In rebuttal, University of Kentucky Healthcare’s Craig Beavers presenting on behalf of Alanna Morris, argued that while the rapid titration approach is ideal, it wasn’t rooted in real-world thinking. Beavers outlined barriers to quadruple guideline-directed medical therapy for heart failure, including lack of provider knowledge, side effects, administrative burden, Medicare prescription drug coverage, high out-of-pocket costs, and clinical inertia. He also outlined barriers to rapid titration therapy, including polypharmacy, side effects, financial toxicity, and patients failing to understand the rationale for changes.

Beavers concluded that while he agrees that an approach of rapid titration of quadruple therapy is needed for eligible heart failure patients, the current system is not set up to achieve it.

Presenting as part of an afternoon session on arrhythmia treatment, electrophysiologist Jonathan Piccini acknowledged that catheter ablation will not be needed by every patient. Most patients, though, will benefit from catheter ablation — “Absolutely yes, beyond a shadow of a doubt,” he said.

Piccini went on to outline reasons to ablate — it can suppress atrial fibrillation, improve quality of life, and reduce symptoms in patients.

“It’s not a cure, but it’s a highly effective form of suppressing active episodes of AFib,” Piccini said. “This forms the foundational pathophysiology and rationale on which catheter ablation is built.”

The EAST trial showed a 20 percent risk reduction in cardiovascular mortality, stroke, and hospitalization for both heart failure and coronary syndrome over five years, Piccini shared. In CABANA, the procedure showed similar risk reduction in deaths and cardiovascular hospitalization.

Like any procedure or drug prescribed in patients or intervention, applying it to the appropriate patients is critically linked to effectiveness and safety, he noted.

“Does every (AFib patient) need an ablation? No. But most people will probably benefit from ablation because at some point they will have symptoms. Or at some point they are going to benefit from rhythm control,” Piccini said. “EAST shows us that’s probably the beginning of their journey. … If we diagnosed it upfront and implemented early rhythm control, there is a very large role for catheter ablation in their health.”

In additional AHA news, Lesley Curtis, chief of the Department of Population Health Sciences at Duke was selected to receive the QCOR Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Heart Association’s Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research (QCOR). Congratulations, Lesley!

Jay Lusk, a resident physician at Duke, was named a finalist in the American Heart Association’s Lp(a) Data Challenge. His project, titled “A Random Survival Forest Model for Cardiovascular Risk Prediction from Electronic Health Record Data” was presented Nov. 12. Way to go, Jay!

Congratulations to all!

Duke Heart Faculty Among World’s Most Influential

Congratulations to Chris Granger, Renato Lopes, and Adrian Hernandez! They, along with 27 other Duke faculty members, made Clarivate‘s Most Highly Cited Scientists list of most cited researchers for 2023. Nearly 7,000 were named to this year’s list. Hernandez has been named to the list for each of the last five years, while Granger has been included each year since 2014. This year marks Lopes’ first appearance on the list.

Data used to evaluate and select the honorees are procured from Clarivate’s Web of Science citation index and analysis by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Clarivate’s Institute for Scientific Information.

Nicely done!

ICYMI: Editorials in JAMA

Adrian Hernandez and Christopher Lindsell as well as Mike Felker and Joe Rogers have editorials in the November 11, 2023 online issue of JAMA. Hernandez, director of the DCRI and Lindsell, professor of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics are coauthors of The Future of Clinical Trials: Artificial to Augmented to Applied Intelligence, while Felker, professor of medicine in Cardiology and head of cardiovascular research at DCRI, and Rogers, president and CEO of the Texas Heart Institute are coauthors of Addition by Subtraction in Mechanical Cardiac Support. Both are worth checking out!

Duke Heart Grows by One!

We are thrilled to share Duke Heart’s latest addition with you. Miguel Yaport, one of our cardiac anesthesia fellows, and Allie Levin, a cardiology fellow, welcomed their daughter, Noa Yaport, on August 15th. Miguel and Allie ask for your forgiveness for this delayed announcement, and hope to make up for it with cute photos!

Despite only being three months old, Noa can calculate EROAs like a pro (thanks to dad’s nightly TEE textbook reading with her, as depicted below). When she is not learning about valve pathologies, she loves tummy time, strolls in the neighborhood, and brunch with her co-fellow Willard.

Welcome, Noa! Congratulations, Allie & Miguel!!!

Duke Heart Celebrates Nurse Practitioners

This past week, we celebrated National Nurse Practitioner Week (Nov. 12-18), in recognition of the NP profession and the many contributions NPs make to Duke Heart and Duke Health. There are more than 355,000 certified NPs in the U.S. caring for patients of all ages. We are deeply grateful for the efforts and contributions these vital Duke Heart team members make each and every day.

As highly skilled team members and healthcare leaders, NPs provide exceptional patient care in virtually all healthcare specialties and settings. NPs are pivotal in the health care delivery of Duke Heart and Duke Health, serving in critical roles throughout clinical care, education, health administration, leadership, and research.

A very special thank you to all NPs in Duke Heart and throughout Duke Health. We hope all of you had a great week!

5th Annual Invented at Duke Celebration

The event is free, but registration is required. You’ll receive an e-ticket to present at the door. Attire is business casual. Parking can be found at the Bryan Center Parking Garage – follow event signs and tell the attendant at the entrance and exit that you’re there for Invented at Duke and you will receive free parking.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

November is Native American Heritage Month; Men’s Health month, and Lung Cancer Awareness month.
Masking is strongly recommended throughout all clinical areas during respiratory virus season, from now through early March.

Cardiology Grand Rounds

Nov. 21: There will be no CGR this week.

All 2023 Duke Cardiology Grand Rounds recordings are uploaded to Warpwire. Recordings can be accessed via this link: https://duke.is/DukeCGR; NET ID and password required. Our newest recording is of Dr. Holger Thiele of the Heart Center Leipzig at University of Leipzig, Germany, who presented Cardiogenic shock treatment: Between clinical practice and current evidence on Nov. 14.

CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference

Nov. 22: Journal Club with Ivan Nenadic Wood. DMP 2W96.

Nov. 24: No CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference today.

Call for Abstracts: Duke’s Annual Quality & Safety Conference

Save the date for Duke’s Annual Quality and Safety Conference scheduled for April 11 in the Trent Semans Center. Click here to view Abstract Guidelines. Abstracts are due by 5 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2023. Late submissions will not be accepted. Contact cynthia.gordon@duke.edu or kyle.rehder@duke.edu with any questions.

A&H Winterfest 2023

The event begins on November 2 and runs until December 14. During Winterfest, art will be available for purchase on Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Featured artisans will include Beth Ann Taylor, Chapel Hill Woodturners, Bonnie Toney, and Justin Leitner.

A portion of the proceeds from Winterfest will go back to Arts & Health at Duke, which provides support to patients through music, visual art activities, and journaling. This is a great opportunity to support local artists, and the Arts & Health programming at Duke Health, and to score some beautiful holiday gifts for loved ones!

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, on Wednesdays, to be considered for weekend inclusion.

Duke Heart in the News:

November 10 — Michael Pencina and Nicoleta Economou (Duke AI Health)

Healthcare IT News

Vanderbilt and Duke awarded $1.25M to study HCO AI maturity

November 11 — G. Michael Felker

Medpage Today

No Aspirin Needed After LVAD, ARIES-HM3 Trial Says

November 12 — Manesh Patel

Medpage Today

DOAC Cuts Stroke Risk From Subclinical Afib

November 12 — Manesh Patel and Jonathan Piccini

tctMD

AZALEA-TIMI 71: Bleeds Plunge With Abelacimab vs Rivaroxaban in AF, but Stroke Impact Unclear

November 13 — Renato Lopes

Mirage News (Au)

Apixaban Proves Effective in Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation Patients

November 13 — Renato Lopes

Drug Today Online

Apixaban is effective in preventing strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation detected by devices, finds study

November 13 — Susan Spratt (Endocrinology)

Today Show (NBC)

Ozempic sister drug Wegovy reduces risk of heart attack and stroke by 20%, study finds

November 13 — Renato Lopes

Medical Dialogues (In)

Apixaban may substantially prevent strokes in patients with device-detected AF

November 14 — Katherine Young (Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care)

Physician’s Weekly

Social Frailty Linked With Poorer Health in Patients With COPD

November 14 — Pamela Douglas

Healio/Cardiology Today

Pitavastatin lowers plaque volume, progression in lower-risk patients with HIV

November 15 — G. Michael Felker

MedTech Dive

Abbott study links aspirin-free regimen to better outcomes in heart pump patients

November 15 — Stephen Greene

HCP Live

Experts’ Perspectives: Top News in Cardiology for 2023

Duke Heart Pulse — November 12, 2023

November 12, 2023 / Leave a comment

Highlights of the week:

Trifecta Weekend: AHA, Alumni, & Veteran’s Day

It’s AHA Scientific Sessions weekend and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to gather together once again in Philadelphia! We will send scientific updates and Duke Presentations next week as the meeting goes on until Monday.

It’s also Duke Alumni Weekend — we hope all those who were on campus this weekend had a great time.

Just as importantly, it’s Veteran’s Day weekend. As we see rising discord across the world, we continue to be humbled by the dedication, sacrifice, and commitment of our military members and their families. Our Duke Heart team has long valued the health and well-being of veterans in our region, and we’ll continue to do so for as long as they need us.

Please share photos and highlights with us from throughout the weekend by emailing anything you’d like to share in next weekend’s Pulse. You can send items via email to either Tracey Koepke or Manesh Patel (or both!).

Clark Joins Duke Heart Team

Duke Heart is pleased to welcome Brian Clark, MD to our team! Clark, a congenital heart surgeon, is the newest faculty member to join the Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery’s Section of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery. Clark joined the Duke School of Medicine on Nov. 1 as a professor of surgery and of pediatrics and will transition into the roles of Executive Co-Director of the Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center and Director of the Congenital Cardiac Surgery Fellowship program over the coming months.

Clark was born into a military family in eastern North Carolina — his father was a pilot in the Marine Corps, and his mother was a school teacher. Their family moved often, with several stops on the East Coast, plus stays in California and Japan. He returned to complete high school in eastern North Carolina, and his parents have since retired in the New Bern area.

With the support of a full-tuition college scholarship from the Air Force, Clark obtained his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then served on active duty as a civil engineering officer at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona. Following his military service, he again returned to NC to attend medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He stayed at UNC for the next step in training, completing a residency in general surgery as well as a two-year NIH-funded research fellowship.

He subsequently went on to complete fellowship training in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and then congenital cardiac surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital. In 2007, he joined the faculty at the Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where he ultimately became Professor of Pediatrics and Surgery and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery. During his 16-year tenure, the Penn State pediatric heart program was nationally recognized for superior patient outcomes. His research contributions focus on pediatric cardiopulmonary bypass, mechanical circulatory support, and neuroprotection. He has authored numerous publications in these areas and has served as a co-investigator on multiple long-term NIH grants for the development of pediatric and congenital heart assist devices.

Brian and his wife Carol have two children, Jack and Kate. We are excited for them to be back home in NC! Please give them a warm welcome when you meet them.

AHA.23: Yibin Wang Receives AHA’s 2023 Basic Research Prize

Congratulations to Yibin Wang, PhD, FAHA, of Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore and Duke University School of Medicine! The American Heart Association (AHA) presented its 2023 Basic Research Prize to Yang during the Presidential Session of the AHA’s Scientific Sessions.

Wang’s research focuses on the fundamental molecular and genetic mechanisms of cardiovascular physiology and cardiometabolic diseases. Under Wang’s leadership, his laboratory has developed innovative approaches to unlock the key molecules and pathways in which cells in mammals respond to pathological stress. His lab is credited with discovering new regulatory paradigms in molecular, epigenetic, and metabolic reprogramming during cardiac maturation and pathological remodeling. Wang’s work has directly contributed to many clinical studies and new trials for heart diseases. During his career, his research has been funded by the American Heart Association, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Defense, as well as the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health in Singapore.

“Dr. Yibin Wang was selected for this prize because of his commitment to learning more about the genetic, molecular, and cellular mechanisms behind cardiovascular disease,” said Joseph C. Wu, MD, PhD, 2023-2024 volunteer President of the AHA. “Additionally, his research applies discoveries made about stress signaling networks to new methods of treatment for heart disease and the management of heart failure. Congratulations, Dr. Wang!”

Wang is a professor and director of the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders Signature Research Program of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders at Duke-NUS and a professor in medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. He is the scientific founder of a biotech start-up Ramino Bio and the principal investigator leading a 12-person research team that is developing new therapies based on what they have learned about cellular stress responses related to heart and metabolic diseases. He has written more than 270 peer-reviewed scientific articles, and two of his patents were licensed for evaluating and treating cardiometabolic disorders including heart failure, diabetes, and obesity.

“I’m truly humbled by this award from the Association, an organization that I am very fortunate to call home since the very beginning of my academic career,” said Wang. “However, this recognition is not for me alone but for all the team members and our collaborators over the years, who have devoted their talents and hard work in order to uncover new knowledge that can one day lead to new therapies for people with heart disease. I am very grateful to each of them and will use this award as a constant reminder that heart disease is still the number one killer and a challenge we must overcome with more research and better knowledge.”

Wang studied biochemistry at Fudan University during his undergraduate education. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the State University of New York and a doctoral degree in cell biology and molecular genetics from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed a research fellowship in neurobiology at Scripps Research Institute and a second research fellowship in molecular cardiology at the University of California San Diego. Wang was previously recognized by the AHA with the Established Investigator Award in 2005 and the Thomas Smith Memorial Lectureship in 2016. He has served on several AHA leadership committees at the national level including as a member of the Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Council.

Congratulations, Yibin!

Patel Delivers 2023 Stead Lecture:

Manesh Patel, MD, Richard Sean Stack, M.D. Distinguished Professor, delivered the Annual Eugene A. Stead Jr. Memorial Lecture as part of Medicine Grand Rounds on Friday morning, Nov. 10 in the Great Hall of the Trent Semans Center for Health Education at Duke. In case you missed his terrific lecture, Antithrombotic Therapy and Vascular Disease Management: Moving towards Precision CV care and the Duke Databank 3.0, you can watch a recording here.

The lecture was very well attended and included FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD.

LEADS: Caring for Hospitalized Patients at the End-of-Life

Please join the Department of Medicine for their next LEADS: Caring for Hospitalized Patients at the End-of-Life, on November 14, 2023, from 12:15-1:00 p.m. in Duke North 2002 or via Zoom.

Presenters for this session will be Neha Kayastha, MD, and Roberta Turner, MD, both assistant professors of medicine in Duke’s Division of General Internal Medicine.

Learning Objectives:

Use the physical exam to provide a prognosis in a dying patient.
Identify helpful ways to provide anticipatory guidance about difficult changes at the end-of-life.
Develop a treatment approach to the common physical symptoms that arise at the end-of-life.
Describe the hospice benefit and Duke-specific resources.

To learn more about the LEADS program and to see their current schedule, please visit: https://duke.is/y/vvrk.

Duke’s Annual Quality & Safety Conference Announced

Save the date for Duke’s Annual Quality and Safety Conference scheduled for April 11 in the Trent Semans Center. Click here to view Abstract Guidelines. Abstracts are due by 5 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2023. Late submissions will not be accepted. Contact cynthia.gordon@duke.edu or kyle.rehder@duke.edu with any questions.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

November is Native American Heritage Month; Men’s Health month, and Lung Cancer Awareness month.
This week is National Nurse Practitioner Week (Nov. 12-18). Thank an NP for all they do!
Masking is strongly recommended throughout all clinical areas during respiratory virus season, from now through early March.

Cardiology Grand Rounds

Nov. 14: Cardiogenic shock treatment: Between clinical practice and current evidence with Holger Thiele of the Heart Center Leipzig at University of Leipzig, Germany. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.

All 2023 Duke Cardiology Grand Rounds recordings are uploaded to Warpwire. Recordings can be accessed via this link: https://duke.is/DukeCGR; NET ID and password required. Our newest recording is of Dr. Sandra Ofori of McMaster University who presented to us Nov. 8 on Perioperative Smoking Cessation.

CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference

Conference information was not provided for the coming week ahead of publications. We’ll add dates/times as they are received. Sorry for any inconvenience.

2023 Barbara Hertzberg Women’s Health Lectureship

Nov. 16: Coronary Artery Disease in Women: Where are we in 2023? with Leslee J. Shaw, PhD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai. 7:30 a.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.

THIS WEEK! 15^th Annual Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium

The 15^th annual NC Research Triangle Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium will be held this week on Friday, November 17^th at the Durham Convention Center. Faculty directors will be H. James Ford, MD, director of the PH program at UNC, and Terry Fortin, MD, co-director of the Pulmonary Vascular Disease Center at Duke. Registration is now open: https://duke.is/9/7rs5. Please join us!

A&H Winterfest 2023

5th Annual Invented at Duke Celebration

Duke’s Office for Translation & Commercialization (OTC) invites you to the 2023 ‘Invented at Duke’ celebration, their annual showcase of Duke inventors and inventions. This year, the event will take place on Tuesday, November 28, 2023, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at Duke’s beautiful Penn Pavilion.

Remarks are expected from Vincent Price, president of Duke University; Robin Rasor, head of OTC; and Jungsang Kim, the Schiciano Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, co-founder of IonQ and a strong supporter of the translation and commercialization community on campus.

The remainder of the event will feature booths hosted by Duke inventors, drinks and hors d’oeuvres, gifts for Duke inventors who register and attend, and more. The celebration will showcase innovations and companies that have not only been started by Duke faculty and students but have also been supported through funding and mentoring by a variety of Duke translational funds, incubators, and more.

Attire: business casual.

Parking: at the Bryan Center Parking Garage – follow event signs and tell the attendant at the entrance and exit that you’re there for Invented at Duke and you will receive free parking.

The event is free, but registration is required. You’ll receive an e-ticket to present at the door.

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, on Wednesdays, will be considered for weekend inclusion.

Duke Heart in the News:

November 4 — Renato Lopes

Healio/Nephrology

Lower rates of access thrombosis for patients with CKD who receive daprodustat vs. EPO

November 4 — Robert Lefkowitz

Spectrum News Charlotte **(*clip begins @ 04:31:34)

Researcher marks 50 years of science (updates 10/30 story)

November 5 — Joseph Turek

CBS-17 (Raleigh-Durham)

NC baby gets new heart, donates valves to another in state’s 1st domino partial heart transplant at Duke

Fox-8/WGHP (Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem)

North Carolina baby gets new heart, donates valves to another in state’s 1st domino partial heart transplant at Duke

Yahoo.com

NC baby gets new heart in state’s 1st domino partial heart transplant at Duke

November 6 — Duke Raleigh Hospital

WUNC, 91.5/NC Public Radio

Cursed at. Shoved. Punched. Bitten. Violence against doctors and nurses is rising. A new N.C. law aims to help protect them.

November 6 — DUH & Duke Raleigh

Becker’s Clinical Leadership

56 US hospitals honored for surgical patient care

November 7 — Duke Health

Triangle Business Journal*

Duke Health, WakeMed shine as NC stays among top states for hospital safety

*subscription required; for a PDF, contact Tracey

November 7 — Yuichiro Yano (Family Medicine/Community Health)

Cardiovascular Business

ChatGPT tackles hypertension: Popular AI model a helpful resource for patients with high blood pressure

November 9 — Nishant Shah

NBC News

What to know about Zepbound, Eli Lilly’s new weight loss drug

*also carried by NBC News affiliates, Yahoo, MSN & AOL.com News, and Chiang Rai News (China)

November 10 — Nishant Shah

NBC Today Show

Weight loss drug Zepbound approved by FDA: Woman who lost 123 pounds shares story

November 10 — Zubin Eapen

DotMed Healthcare Business News

One company’s approach to advancing wearable defibrillators

Duke Heart Pulse — November 5, 2023

November 5, 2023 / Leave a comment

Chief’s message:

Hope you all are having a good weekend. For those of you who didn’t see it – NY Times highlighted 36 hours in Durham today.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/02/travel/things-to-do-durham-nc.html

Highlights of the week:

This week: AHA Scientific Sessions in Philly!

We know a lot of you will be traveling to Philadelphia this week to attend and perhaps present at the 2023 American Heart Association’s Annual Scientific Sessions. We hope you’ll share photos and highlights with us from throughout the weekend. Please email photos and write-ups on anything you’d like to share in an upcoming issue of Pulse by sending items via email to either Tracey Koepke or Manesh Patel (or both!).

Annual Duke Reception at AHA Scientific Sessions

If you’ll be attending the 2023 AHA Scientific Sessions later this week, please join us at the Duke Annual Reception!

When: Saturday, November 11 from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Where: Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, 1201 Market Street. Level 4, Franklin Hall 8.

Sponsors: Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke Cardiology, Duke Heart Center

Questions?: Please email Elizabeth.evans@duke.edu or willette.wilkins@duke.edu

We look forward to seeing you there!

Duke Shines at 3^rd Annual NYU Langone Critical Care Symposium

The 3^rd Annual NYU Langone Critical Care Cardiology Symposium was held two weekends ago (October 20-21, 2023) in New York City. Duke had outstanding representation there – including fellows Willard Applefeld and Balim Senman, as well as nurse practitioner and School of Nursing faculty member, Callie Tennyson, DNP, who each were invited faculty on the symposium.

Senman also served on the symposium’s planning committee and was selected as overall “Best Abstract” winner in the Research Category (an award endorsed by the CardioNerds program). Additionally, Garima Dahiya – one of the current Critical Care Cardiology trainees at Duke – was selected as a “Best Abstract” winner in the Quality Improvement Category. Finally, Dr. Cherylee Chang – Professor of Neurology and Division Chief of Neurocritical Care here at Duke – also participated as an invited faculty member and was instrumental in helping to cultivate and champion the multidisciplinary focus of the symposium.

“It was great to see Duke’s influence on this maturing discipline,” said Jason Katz, MD, advanced heart failure and critical care specialist. Katz is a long-time champion of cardiology critical care training and support. You can read an interview he did for the ACC/Cardiology Magazine here.

Way to go, Willard, Balim, and Callie!

Mario Foundation Awardees Profiled by DOM

Back in August, we shared the great news that advanced heart failure and transplant fellow, Josephine Harrington, MD, won a 2023 Mario Foundation Award. Harrington and her fellow awardees were profiled this past week in the Department of Medicine’s This Week in Medicine. We wanted to share her profile here with you:

Josephine Harrington, MD

Josephine Harrington, MD, is an advanced heart failure and transplant fellow. She attended medical school at the University of Massachusetts Worcester before going to the University of Texas Southwestern for her residency. Dr. Harrington completed her cardiology training at Duke, including two years at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) on a T32 grant. Her clinical and research interests are focused on identifying better methods to care for patients with heart failure and obesity.

As a fellow, Dr. Harrington piloted a clinic to provide care for patients whose body mass index (BMI) was a barrier to heart transplant; multiple of her patients have gone on to successfully lose weight and receive heart transplants. Her research has similarly focused on understanding the relationship between obesity and markers of heart failure severity, and on the impact of weight loss in patients with heart failure and obesity. She is an avid hiker and loves good food and bad puns. Her winning project is: The Relationship Between Obesity, Weight Loss and Heart Failure Severity.

Q: Please describe your most significant research work and why you are excited about it.

Harrington: Despite the fact that obesity is the single largest risk factor for heart failure, we know shockingly little about the ways that excess body weight impact heart failure physiology, or how intentional weight loss might ameliorate those relationships. I am leveraging the incredibly rich data that already exist at Duke to establish baseline relationships between obesity and heart failure, and to explore the impact of intentional weight loss on changes in those relationships. Intentional weight loss may well represent a new “pillar” for heart failure management among patients with obesity, and these data will help to establish the potential for weight loss to impact heart failure severity in this population.

Q: What has a Duke School of Medicine education meant to you in preparing for your career as a physician and/or researcher?

Harrington: Duke is truly unparalleled when it comes to resources and chances for collaboration and research. Rarely a week goes by where I don’t realize that there is yet another opportunity to further a research question or to leverage a dataset to inform an investigation.

Q: We live in a fascinating time for moving medicine forward.  How do you foresee contributing to medicine that will improve the health and well-being for all populations?

Harrington: The median BMI in the United States continues to climb, and a “normal” BMI is no longer the most prevalent BMI category. There is a tremendous need to improve care for patients with obesity and comorbid diseases, especially heart disease, which remains the number 1 comorbidity of patients with obesity. I hope that my work will directly inform care for patients with obesity and heart failure, and will help to set new standards in management for this vulnerable population.

To read the full article, which includes a similar Q&A with Harrington’s fellow awardees, Judith B. Vick, MD MPH, fellow in general internal medicine, and Naseem Alavian, MD, MPH, a fellow in infectious diseases, please visit this link.

Shout-outs to Suleimon & Arps!

We received two notes this week from Dr. Daniella Zipkin, professor of medicine in General Internal Medicine, with feedback on two of our fellows who held teaching sessions last spring for GIM residents. Belal Suleimon taught CH/PO AHD- LTC Basics, and Kelly Arps taught CH/PO AHD Atrial fibrillation.

“Belal, I’m writing to share feedback from your teaching session last spring with the residents. They thought your session was outstanding! I’m especially grateful when fellows step up to teach, thank you so much for bringing your energy to this series!”

And to Arps, she wrote:

“Hello Kelly, I’m writing to share feedback from your session last spring. Your teaching continues to be outstanding and well received!! Thank you so much for teaching in this series!” — Take care, Dani

Nicely done, Belal and Kelly!

Kudos to Hughes & Danielle!

We also received a terrific note this week regarding cardiology fellow Seamus Hughes that was shared with Anna Lisa Chamis.

“Hi! My name is Kami Arulraja and I’m one of the CCM fellows and am in the MICU tonight and needed to float a PA catheter, and called the CCU fellow – Seamus who came to help and truly went above and beyond. Seamus was patient and an excellent teacher; we really appreciate Seamus and the CCU charge nurse Danielle who came to help! Just wanted to let you know about one of your excellent fellows!” — Kami Arulraja, MD – PGY6, Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine

Way to go, Seamus and Danielle!

Lefkowitz Celebration Video Now Available

For those who were unable to attend the 50^th anniversary celebration dinner for Dr. Bob Lefkowitz last month, we now have access to a video from the evening speaking presentations. Link to video. Passcode: rjl50. Enjoy!

Did You Know? List of Duke AED Locations

Did you know there is an online list of all known/registered AED locations on the Duke University & Health System campus? Read a recent article about this from Duke Today.

To bypass the article and go directly to the site with AED locations, go here. The list is compiled and maintained by Duke Emergency Management. You can also register new AED’s (or ones not listed there) through a link on that page.

Final Call: Flu Vaccinations!

The Duke Health deadline for all employees to be vaccinated for the flu is 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7. A list of all locations, dates, times for flu vaccination, and a link to the required screening survey can be found on Duke’s Fight the Flu website. And, if you have any questions about the flu vaccine you can email either StopTheFlu@duke.edu or EOHWflu@dm.duke.edu.

Don’t forget — masking is highly recommended when providing clinical care. Some units now require masking due to COVID outbreaks — including all Heart Center inpatient and procedural units. Please pay attention to signage on our units and elsewhere within the hospital.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

November is Native American Heritage Month; Men’s Health month, and Lung Cancer Awareness month.
Masking is strongly recommended throughout all clinical areas during respiratory virus season, from now through early March.
A recording of the latest (10/24) DUHS Leadership Town Hall is now available.

Medicine Grand Rounds

Annual Stead Lecture:

Nov. 10: Antithrombotic therapy and Vascular disease management: Moving towards precision CV care and the Duke Databank 3.0 with Manesh Patel. 8 a.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.

Cardiology Grand Rounds

(Wednesday) Nov. 8: Perioperative Smoking Cessation with Sandra Ofori of McMaster University. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.

All 2023 Duke Cardiology Grand Rounds recordings are uploaded to Warpwire. Recordings can be accessed via this link: https://duke.is/DukeCGR; NET ID and password required.

CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference

Nov. 8: Peripheral Vascular Disease – Aorta with Jennifer Rymer. In person only. Noon, DMP 2W96.

Nov. 10: EP Case Presentation with Jessica Regan and Jonathan Hanna. Zoom only. Noon.

2023 Barbara Hertzberg Women’s Health Lectureship

Nov. 16: Coronary Artery Disease in Women: Where are we in 2023? with Leslee J. Shaw, PhD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai. 7:30 a.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.

15^th Annual Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium

The 15^th annual NC Research Triangle Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium will be held on Friday, November 17^th at the Durham Convention Center. Faculty directors will be H. James Ford, MD, director of the PH program at UNC, and Terry Fortin, MD, co-director of the Pulmonary Vascular Disease Center at Duke. Registration is now open: https://duke.is/9/7rs5. Please join us!

A&H Winterfest 2023

5th Annual Invented at Duke Celebration

Duke’s Office for Translation & Commercialization (OTC) invites you to the 2023 ‘Invented at Duke’ celebration, their annual showcase of Duke inventors and inventions. This year, the event will take place on Tuesday, November 28, 2023, from 4:30-7 p.m. at Duke’s beautiful Penn Pavilion.

The remainder of the event will feature booths hosted by Duke inventors, drinks and hors d’oeuvres, gifts for Duke inventors who register and attend, and more. The celebration will showcase innovations and companies that have not only been started by Duke faculty and students, but have also been supported through funding and mentoring by a variety of Duke translational funds, incubators, and more.

Attire: business casual.

Parking: at the Bryan Center Parking Garage – follow event signs and tell the attendant on entrance and exit that you’re there for Invented at Duke and you will receive free parking.

The event is free, but registration is required. You’ll receive an e-ticket to present at the door.

Have news to share?

Duke Heart in the News:

October 26 — Joe Turek and Michael Carboni

PBS North Carolina

Sci NC: Cutting-Edge Science

https://duke.is/r/35vg

October 30 — Robert Lefkowitz

Spectrum News

‘What would Bob do?’: Researcher reflects on 50 years of scientific breakthroughs

https://duke.is/z/mj8d

October 30 — Jennifer Rymer