Duke Heart Pulse — December 17, 2023
Chief’s message:
Happy holidays! This is our final Pulse of 2023 – so, as we close out the calendar year, thank you for all the terrific work you have done this year and for your many good-news submissions to us. We look forward to 2024 where we will continue to focus on the difference we can make in each others lives, our community, and the future leaders of cardiovascular medicine.
We are taking the next two weekends off. We’ll return with the latest news and shout-outs on Sunday, Jan. 7. On behalf of the Duke Heart leadership team, we wish each of you and your loved ones a safe and joyous New Year.
Please find some photos from the Duke Heart Center Holiday Party Photo Booth at the end of the pulse this week.
Highlights of the week:
Heart Team Clears 150 Transplants for 2023; Surpasses 2000 Total
We are thrilled to share that our Heart Transplant team has set a new record! The team has now transplanted more than 150 hearts this year – a feat we believe no other U.S. institution has achieved. They also surpassed a program milestone: transplanting our 2000th recipient one week ago today. The numbers include pediatric and adult transplant cases.
“I am really proud of the work the team did this year,” says advanced heart failure specialist Adam DeVore, MD, medical director of Duke’s Heart Transplant Program. “The volume and the numbers we have reached are a big deal, but when you think about what they represent — the number of lives we have impacted, it’s pretty amazing. Just think about how many kids went on to grow up, and parents who were able to continue raising their kids, and grandparents who were able to see their families grow. We’ve helped a remarkable number of people and that is what it’s all about.”
Cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon Jeff Keenan, MD, performed Duke’s 2000th heart transplant last weekend. Keenan, who did his surgical residency and training at Duke, recently returned to Duke after two years on the faculty of the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.
“I think for our entire team and program, this is a great accomplishment,” says Keenan. “This reflects a great commitment to our patients with advanced heart failure from the institution and the whole team. It reflects a whole lot of hard work from a lot of people over a long period.”
DeVore’s pride in the team is palpable.
“This is a really remarkable achievement, and I am proud to be part of it. I cannot overstate how important this success is overall for Duke Heart Center. This is not a transplant achievement,” says DeVore, “This is a result of the entire Duke Heart team. These patients are cared for within the Heart Center for a long time before they need a heart transplant. Then, even afterward, our patients continue to be touched by all the different areas within Heart services – from cardiac imaging to the cardiac catheterization lab and electrophysiology, and all of the care units – this is a huge testament to what we’re able to do here, together, within Duke Heart.”
Reaching this number of successful transplants goes beyond just a handful of people, DeVore and Keenan both say. The success is due to the efforts of literally hundreds of people contributing over many years.
“Contributions come from across the spectrum. From everyone who takes care of these patients,” Keenan says. “This includes cardiology, our transplant coordinators, the support teams, social workers, our cardiothoracic anesthesiology team, our OR and CTICU support teams, and then all of the staff and support coming through Duke Hospital – and I’m sure there are a lot of people who do things to support us that I have no idea about that make everything ultimately work.”
DeVore notes the energy and dedication of Jacob Schroder, MD, surgical director of the Heart Transplant program. “Jacob has been like the engine for this team. He really has been a driving force and has done so much for the program. We have a great team, we’re doing great work, and love working together.”
Duke’s heart transplant program, established in 1985, has experienced annual growth for nearly a decade, according to DeVore. “It has grown every year since 2015, which is remarkable. Year over year, growth like this is difficult to sustain, but there are no signs of letting up. He says the growth has come through partnering with other great heart failure programs throughout the southeast, and also through innovation and research.
“Any time we’re a part of new discovery, that’s a great thing,” DeVore adds. “But to be able to do it and immediately impact care and see results like this is really, really rewarding and certainly a great thing. Hopefully, we can take this and educate other centers on how to do this so we can keep expanding transplant across the globe, too.”
Congratulations to all for a great year!
Ngeno Among Five Recipients of Inaugural Corey Legacy Award
Congratulations to cardiologist Titus Ngeno, MD, MSc-GH, assistant professor of medicine! Ngeno is among five inaugural recipients of the Dr. G. Ralph Corey Legacy Award. The awardees were announced last week by the Hubert-Yeargan Center and Duke Clinical Research Institute, the partnering organizations that created the award and established a research fund to carry on Dr. Corey’s vision of “developing the next generation of globally educated, socially responsible clinician educators and scientists dedicated to improving health equity at home and abroad.”
Ngeno and Neelima Navuluri, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine in the division of pulmonary, allergy, and critical care, together were named awardees for their collaborative research project, Validation of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Patient Related Outcome Measures among Adults in Kenya” which will be conducted at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.
Cardiopulmonary diseases are the leading cause of death globally and exert a disproportionate burden of morbidity in low income regions of the world such as Sub-Saharan Africa. One effective intervention for treatment of cardiopulmonary disease is cardiopulmonary rehabilitation. Such rehabilitation involves a comprehensive set of patient-tailored treatments such as aerobic exercise, endurance training, strength exercises, education, and behavior change designed to improve physical and psychological well-being among patients with chronic cardiac and pulmonary disease. It improves exercise tolerance, functional status, respiratory symptoms, depressive symptoms and quality of life among patients with chronic cardiovascular and respiratory diseases such as heart failure, chronic obstructive lung disease and post-tuberculosis lung disease.
However, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation is not widely available in most of sub-saharan Africa, including in Kenya, according to the team’s project proposal. Thus, there is a critical need for further implementation studies to increase evidence for and availability of rehab programs.
Ngeno and Navuluri’s co-principal investigators include Neil MacIntyre, professor of medicine in the division of pulmonary, allergy, and critical care; Dr. David Lagat of Moi University School of Medicine, and Dr. Carolyne Lusweti, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Ngeno and Navuluri’s project aims to assess which cardiopulmonary functional assessment and quality of life measures are most appropriate for the Kenyan setting. The study will enroll 102 participants comprising healthy controls, patients with pulmonary disease (chronic obstructive lung disease, post-tuberculosis lung disease), and patients with cardiac disease (valvular and non-valvular disease, heart failure). Functional capacity and quality of life assessments will be compared across groups. The project findings will yield insight into which metrics would be most appropriate for routine clinical assessments as well as establish reference ranges for future research studies.
Additional inaugural recipients are Hutton Chapman, MD, Sharla Rent, MD, and Sweta Patel, MD. To learn more about the Corey Legacy Award, visit https://duke.is/6/dm83; to read about the other research projects funded this year, please see the lead story in the Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health’s latest quarterly newsletter: HYC Happenings – Fall 2023
Congratulations, Titus!
Kudos to Melissa Williams!
Congratulations to Duke Heart Center of Excellence team member Melissa Williams! Williams graduated from Duke Management Academy’s year-long
program on Wed., Dec. 13. The program, created for mid-level managers, is part of Duke’s commitment to develop leaders at all levels within Duke University and Health System. Williams is clinical manager of our registry team in CV Informatics and Quality Improvement.
Her team (comprised of Williams, Keith Holder, Aris Marton, Katherine Fox, and Danielle Wiggins) received the best presentation and paper award for their project, “Help at Students’ Fingers: A Mobile App to Navigate Well-being Resources”.
Way to go, Melissa!
Duke Heart continuing innovation with Impella RP Flex
Imran and Jeff worked together placing the first RP Flex Impella this week. Some pictures included. This is gratifying after our team worked to help with some of the first RP trial patients in the OR and cath labs. Great work team!
New publications from the Duke Heart Team
Congratulations to Bill Kraus, MD and his co-authors on their latest publication!
The Science of Precision Prevention: Research Opportunities and Clinical Applications to Reduce Cardiovascular Health Disparities was published online this week in JACC: Advances.
Duke Health Signs Pledge for Ethical, Responsible AI in Health Care
Duke Health is among a leading group of health systems and payers from across the U.S. to sign a pledge advancing ethical and responsible use of Artificial Intelligence technology in health care.
The pledge announced today at the annual conference hosted by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, is a voluntary commitment to the principles of safety, security and trust that are fundamental to the future of AI.
“AI presents unequalled potential for advancing health with new scientific discoveries, improved diagnoses and treatment of diseases and better systems that free our workers to dedicate their expertise to patient care rather than administrative chores,” said Craig T. Albanese, MD, chief executive officer of Duke University Health System.
“But we recognize that AI also has the potential to be misused,” Albanese said. “By signing this pledge, we are publicly stating our commitment to work toward the better good.”
Mary Klotman, MD, executive vice president for health affairs at Duke University and dean of Duke University School of Medicine, said establishing Duke’s role as a leader in trustworthy AI has been an institutional priority for years and is foundational to advancing better health.
“This pledge actually reflects many years of work that Duke Health has already undertaken to establish the infrastructures we need to pursue AI with integrity,” Klotman said. “It puts us on record with our commitment.”
In addition to signing the pledge, Duke Health has been a founding member of the Coalition for Health AI, or CHAI, established to develop guidelines and guardrails for fair and credible applications of AI in health care.
Duke Health has also built a framework for the governance and evaluation of clinical algorithms used throughout the organization. Duke’s Algorithm-Based Clinical Decision Support framework is designed to foster innovative, safe, equitable, and high-quality patient care. This is achieved with human oversight throughout the use of an AI program to ensure that transparency, quality, and ownership are maintained.
“First and foremost, AI should serve humans,” said Michael Pencina, PhD, Duke Health’s chief data scientist and director of Duke AI Health. “It’s imperative that AI is developed and applied in a trustworthy manner, and we have been engaged in establishing that foundation for the last few years, as evidenced by our role in CHAI and recent publications. We are not catching up on this — it’s something that has been a differentiator in terms of being careful and proactive — and our signature on the pledge is a further confirmation of our commitments.”
ICYMI: December Leadership Town Hall
The latest Duke University Health System Leadership Town Hall video from Tuesday, Dec. 12, is now available on Leadership Café. Check it out when you get some time. Leadership Town Hall is held via Zoom on the 4th Tuesday of each month from 12-12:45 p.m.
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
- Masking is strongly recommended throughout all clinical areas during respiratory virus season, from now through early March. It is currently mandatory in 7E/CICU through 12/21.
- Lots of holiday fun in-house throughout the holiday season! Be sure to check out Season’s Greetings Bingo; pop-up Cheer Stations (13th-18th); and Tribute Snowflakes: An Act of Remembrance in the corridor from DMP to Duke Central Tower throughout December. Details on the DUH SharePoint site.
- Everyone working at DUH on Monday, Dec. 25 is invited to enjoy a complementary holiday meal.
Cardiology Grand Rounds
Dec. 19: AHA Recap, part 2 with Manesh Patel and Kristin Newby. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.
All 2023 Duke Cardiology Grand Rounds recordings are housed on Warpwire. The AHA Recap, Part 1 from Dec. 12 has been uploaded. To access recordings please visit: https://duke.is/DukeCGR; NET ID and password required. Enjoy!
CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference
Dec. 20: EP Case Presentation with Ivan Nenadic Wood and Husam Salah. DMP 2W96 (in-person only).
Dec. 22: No CD Fellows Core Curriculum conference today. Happy holidays!
MDEpiNet: RAPID PASSION CV Virtual Think Tank, Jan. 9
Predictable And SuStainable Implementation Of National CardioVascular Registries: PASSION CVR — Registry-Supported Infrastructure Development for Prospective Trials: Pathways for DEI and “Long, Long” Term Vital Status Use Cases
Tuesday, January 9, 2024, 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST
Meeting Objectives:
- Pragmatic aspects of CV device research approaches to DEI issues.
- Pragmatic aspects of developing a streamlined, high quality, “long, long” (> 5 yr) vital status profile that could be predictably and reliably accessed by clinical trial sponsors and sufficient for public health safety assessments going forward.
Office of Faculty Announces Event with Israni of Stanford Medicine, Feb. 26
Academic Medicine, with all its complexities, naturally includes conflict amongst its crucial collaborators – trainees, faculty, staff, communities and more. 21st century leadership skills require all of us to strategically leverage components of this conflict for constructive change, with intentional and thoughtful actions. This talk will weave together themes from restorative justice and design thinking; and how they can be applied to artificial intelligence and JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion), offering a case for new ways of leveraging conflict to advance a culture of connectedness and belonging. The featured speaker will be Sonoo Thadaney Israni of Stanford University’s Presence Center.
February 26: Leveraging Conflict for Constructive Change. 4-5:30 p.m., DN 2002. Presented by the Office for Faculty. Refreshments will follow. To learn more and register: https://duke.is/8/8d7f.
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.
Upcoming CME Symposia for Spring, 2024
Heads up on some CME dates you might want to put on the calendar for next year. Our Duke Sports Cardiology & Sudden Death in Athletes symposium will be held at the Trent Semans Center on Friday, April 12, 2024. And our Duke Heart Failure Symposium will be held at the Durham Hilton on Saturday, May 4, 2024.
Registration won’t be open for a while, but if you have any questions about either event, please reach out to Christy Darnell.
As soon as registration opens, we’ll have that listed here in Pulse.
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:
December 5 — Nishant Shah and Neha Pagidipati
Medscape
Meet the Newest Acronym in Primary Care: CKM
December 6 — Stephen Greene
HCP Live
Semaglutide: The Drug of Today and a Steppingstone to Tomorrow
December 7 — Joseph Turek, Paul Martin, and the Nolasco family
Texas Tribune
How one family carved out Medicaid coverage for a rare treatment
December 9 — Jonathan Piccini
The Washington Post
Cold weather may raise the risk of this heart problem
December 11 — Marat Fudim
HealthCentral
The Four Stages of Congestive Heart Failure
December 11 — Svati Shah
American Heart Association Newsroom
Scholars named for research leadership program to increase diversity in clinical trials
December 11 — Jacob Schroder
The Hearty Soul
Doctors Brought Dead Heart ‘back to life’ For Groundbreaking Transplant**
**originally published in Jan. 2020; this is an updated version
Duke Heart Pulse — December 10, 2023
Highlights of the week:
MUSIC-HFpEF1 Trial Launches at Duke
We are excited to announce a new clinical trial taking place at Duke and led by advanced heart failure specialist Marat Fudim, MD. The Modulation of SERCA2a In Cardiomyopathy – Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (MUSIC- HFpEF1) clinical trial launched in early November with the dosing of our first enrolled patient at Duke University Hospital. Our second patient was enrolled last week.
MUSIC-HFpEF1 is a first-in-human trial using gene therapy to modify the pathophysiology of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Half of all heart failure patients are diagnosed with HFpEF, characterized by abnormal ventricular relaxation and elevated filling pressures. The trial, led by Fudim along with interventional cardiologist Manesh Patel, MD, as sub-investigator, presents a true multidisciplinary effort as it includes the expertise of members of the Duke Early Phase Research Unit (DEPRU), the cardiac catheterization lab, and the Cardiac Diagnostic Unit (CDU).
The study drug is an adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapy that is directly delivered to cardiac ventricular muscle cells via a proprietary intracoronary infusion system for enhancing the protein expression and functional activity of the SERCA2a gene.
“We believe this should, at least in theory, reduce the stiffness of the heart, which is the key problem in HFpEF,” Fudim said.
The trial will enroll patients with HFpEF confirmed by rigorous exercise hemodynamics and gas exchange in an open-label, dose-escalation, 52-week Phase 1b/2a clinical trial. The trial is being conducted at two sites, Duke and the University of Texas Southwestern.
While the initial primary goal is to assess safety following intra-coronary SRD-001 infusion, clinical efficacy will also be assessed with cutting-edge approaches.
If you have patients you think might be suitable and interested in participating, or if you have additional questions about the study, please contact Marat Fudim.
Visiting Moi CV Faculty Update
We received thoughtful feedback this week from our recent visitors from Moi University and Teaching Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya. Thanks to everyone who helped support Titus Ngeno, our Duke-Kenya cardiovascular lead, in hosting Drs. Joan Kiyeng and David Lagat, members of the Moi cardiology faculty who visited us in October.
Kiyeng and Lagat spent time observing and learning some of Duke Heart’s best clinical practices and learning more about our care delivery and management systems. Additionally, they were able to get to know members of our faculty better.
Of note, they spent time with Terry Fortin and Nishant Shah in the Cardiac ICU, where they observed the care of our LVAD patients and advanced heart failure population; and time in the cardiac catheterization lab with Andrew Wong, David Kong, Jenn Rymer, Marat Fudim, Schuyler Jones, and Rich Krasuski and were able to observe the watchman procedure, TAVI, complex caths, and post-transplant biopsies. They spent time with members of our electrophysiology team, including Larry Jackson, Camille Frazier-Mills, Zak Loring, Rob Lewis, and James Daubert, and observed several ablations for atrial fibrillation, as well as device implantations. They even had the opportunity to practice using an intracardiac ultrasound stimulator.
During their visit to the PAC and our Consult Services team, they spent time with Gerald Bloomfield, Titus, Cary Ward, and Michelle Kelsey, and more time with both Jerry and Titus, as well as Sreek Vemulapalli while visiting the CDU, and with Igor Klem to observe patients undergoing cardiac MRI.
In their follow-up report to Duke about their visit, the team noted our “excellent atmosphere” for mentorship, learning, and patient care with dedicated and motivated staff, along with excellent teamwork and support systems with highly trained personnel that make clinical care seamless.
“Thank you for the immense support, and engagement with our cardiology colleagues from Kenya during their recent trip to Duke,” said Ngeno. “Joan and David had very productive interactions and great conversations exploring future growth opportunities. They also got to watch a (winning) Duke football home game, courtesy of Duke alums John H. Lawrence & John E. Lawrence.”
Thanks again to all who made this site visit possible and successful, and for taking the time to share your knowledge with Joan and David.
Great job!
DUSON, CTSI Collaborate to Advance Research in Health Equity
Through a collaboration designed to advance research in health equity and social drivers of health, the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and the Center for Precision Health have partnered with the Center for Nursing Research at the Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON) to bring more than 20,000 biological samples and linked data from a community-based registry at Duke Kannapolis to investigators at DUSON.
The new DUSON-MURDOCK Biorepository includes de-identified samples and associated data from nearly 12,000 racially and ethnically diverse participants in the Kannapolis Population Based Cohort, a longitudinal cohort based at CTSI’s research site in Kannapolis.
“We are thrilled to make thousands of biospecimens and associated clinical and outcome data available to the School of Nursing through this science-forward collaboration,” said Svati Shah, MD, MHS, who directs Duke Kannapolis and the Center for Precision Health. “This partnership is exactly what we envisioned when we created our biorepository initiative with the intention to share this powerful resource with more Duke collaborators.”
The Biorepository Transformation Initiative is available to all Duke researchers, who can complete this brief interest form as a first step toward accessing samples. DUSON is well and uniquely positioned to tap into this initiative to create a local biorepository to facilitate biomarker research to support their strategic priorities in health equity, social drivers of health, and nurse-led models of care.
“We are excited to test hypotheses exploring how social and contextual experiences can be embedded in our biology and thus our health. Understanding how these experiences impact health is a key piece of our strategic plan for research,” said Sharron L. Docherty, PhD, PNP, RN, FAAN, vice dean for research at DUSON. “Thanks to the sample size, diversity, and the number of chronic health conditions present across this data set, we can explore vital questions related to how the environment influences biology.”
Researchers at DUSON will use their DUSON-MURDOCK Biorepository in two relatively new areas of research: social epigenetics, or how social experiences become embodied in humans and can impact health in positive and negative ways, and social genomics, or how fixed biological traits underpin health outcomes that are influenced by social factors, such as stress.
“Duke Kannapolis will be a valuable collaborator as we explore ways to use these biospecimens to better understand how a genetic predisposition for a health outcome may be modified by social factors, and in turn, how social factors may become genetically embedded in humans, changing biological function,” said Julia K.L. Walker, PhD, director of the DUSON-Biomarker Laboratory. “The database is a remarkable resource.”
Data generated from the project will be returned to the Kannapolis database for other investigators to use for continued population-based research.
Kais Gadhoumi, PhD, assistant research professor at DUSON, will lead informatics and data management on the project. Duke Kannapolis leadership on the project includes Julie Eckstrand, RPh, executive director for scientific programs, and Douglas Wixted, MMCi, research program leader.
Shout-out to Tcheng!
Congrats to interventionalist Jimmy Tcheng! He has been acknowledged as one of NC’s most respected doctors, as selected by his peers. Check out the Business News article below (under “Duke Heart in the News”.
Bowers Earns FACC
We are thrilled to share with the Duke Heart team that Midge Bowers, DNP, has been elected to Fellowship by the American College of Cardiology. Bowers, a nurse practitioner with our Heart Failure Same Day Access Clinic, is — we believe – the first APP at Duke University Hospital to receive the honor.
As a newly elected Fellow, Bowers has been invited to attend the ACC’s prestigious Convocation ceremony which will be held during the ACC’s Annual Scientific Sessions in Atlanta this coming April.
Congratulations, Midge! This is a wonderful achievement and well deserved!
Cox Earns DNP, Post-Grad Certification
Congratulations to Kevin Cox who graduated from the Duke University School of Nursing this weekend! Kevin graduated with a Doctorate in Nursing Practice and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Nursing Education. His project entitled “Implementation of Educational Intervention in Duke Left Ventricular Assist Device Department by Adding STOP-BANG Sleep Apnea Screening” was implemented at Duke University Hospital.
Congratulations, Kevin!
Filming for ARTEMIS Launch
This week we had the pleasure of hosting a small film crew as part of the collaborative effort between Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) and Novo Nordisk for the ARTEMIS trial, which is expected to launch in mid-2024.
The ARTEMIS trial is a global cardiovascular outcomes study that aims to evaluate the effects of a study medicine versus placebo on cardiovascular outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction. This double-blind, randomized trial will follow 10,000 eligible adults for two years. It is a large-scale study to investigate the potential of the study medicine, an IL-6 inhibitor administered once monthly as a subcutaneous injection, to reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
The crew filmed with Adrian Hernandez, MD, MHS, Vice Dean and Executive Director of DCRI and Principal Investigator for ARTEMIS, and interventional cardiologist, Jenn Rymer, MD, MBA, who will serve as the site PI for Duke.
The video will be released early next year as part of a meeting invitation to site investigators. To learn more about the trial, please visit https://duke.is/j/cydp.
New publications from the Duke Heart Team
Congratulations to the following team members on their latest publications!
Role of Advanced Practice Providers in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit Team, was published online this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Callie Tennyson, Midge Bowers, Allison Dimsdale, Jordan McKenzie-Solis, and Jason Katz are the Duke representatives among the co-authors.
And Impact and Sustainability of a Palliative Care Education Module in Patients With Heart Failure published in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, published online Dec. 4, 2023. Duke authors are Shelley Thompson, Allison Lindgren, Jaime McDermott, Stephanie Barnes, Carolina Tennyson, and Bradi Granger.
Congrats to all!
Upcoming CME Symposia for Spring, 2024
Heads up on some CME dates you might want to put on the calendar for next year. Our Duke Sports Cardiology & Sudden Death in Athletes symposium will be held at the Trent Semans Center on Friday, April 12, 2024. And our Duke Heart Failure Symposium will be held at the Durham Hilton on Saturday, May 4, 2024.
Registration won’t be open for a while, but if you have any questions about either event, please reach out to Christy Darnell.
As soon as registration opens, we’ll have that listed here in Pulse.
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
- Masking is strongly recommended throughout all clinical areas during respiratory virus season, from now through early March.
- Lots of holiday fun in-house throughout the holiday season. Friday, Dec. 15 is CozyFest: Holiday Sweater Spectactular!, sponsored by Duke University Hospital. Also, be sure to check out Season’s Greetings Bingo; pop-up Cheer Stations (13th-18th); and Tribute Snowflakes: An Act of Remembrance in the corridor from DMP to Duke Central Tower throughout December. Details on the DUH SharePoint site.
- And, everyone working at DUH on Monday, Dec. 25 is invited to enjoy a complementary holiday meal.
Transplant Grand Rounds
Dec. 12: Perioperative Anesthetic Management for Patients Undergoing Solid Organ Transplantation with Adam J. Milam. Noon, DN 2001 or via Zoom.
Cardiology Grand Rounds
Dec. 12: AHA Recap with Manesh Patel and Kristin Newby. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.
All 2023 Duke Cardiology Grand Rounds recordings are housed on Warpwire. The most recent CGRs with Dr. Holger Thiele of the University of Leipzig, Dr. Daniel Friedman of Duke, and Dr. Eric Secemsky of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center can all be found there. To access them, please visit: https://duke.is/DukeCGR; NET ID and password required. Enjoy!
CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference
Dec. 13: HF/Txp Case Presentation with Joshua Rushakoff. Noon, DMP 2W96 (in-person only).
Dec. 15: Diseases of the Pericardium with Andrew Wang. Noon, Zoom only.
MDEpiNet: RAPID PASSION CV Virtual Think Tank Announced
Predictable And SuStainable Implementation Of National CardioVascular Registries: PASSION CVR — Registry-Supported Infrastructure Development for Prospective Trials: Pathways for DEI and “Long, Long” Term Vital Status Use Cases
Tuesday, January 9, 2024, 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST
Meeting Objectives:
- Pragmatic aspects of CV device research approaches to DEI issues.
- Pragmatic aspects of developing a streamlined, high quality, “long, long” (> 5 yr) vital status profile that could be predictably and reliably accessed by clinical trial sponsors and sufficient for public health safety assessments going forward.
Office of Faculty Announces Event with Israni of Stanford Medicine, Feb. 26
Academic Medicine, with all its complexities, naturally includes conflict amongst its crucial collaborators – trainees, faculty, staff, communities and more. 21st century leadership skills require all of us to strategically leverage components of this conflict for constructive change, with intentional and thoughtful actions. This talk will weave together themes from restorative justice and design thinking; and how they can be applied to artificial intelligence and JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion), offering a case for new ways of leveraging conflict to advance a culture of connectedness and belonging. The featured speaker will be Sonoo Thadaney Israni of Stanford University’s Presence Center.
February 26: Leveraging Conflict for Constructive Change. 4-5:30 p.m., DN 2002. Presented by the Office for Faculty. Refreshments will follow. To learn more and register: https://duke.is/8/8d7f.
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.
Final Week for A&H Winterfest
The final Thursday of Winterfest Marketplace 2023, will be this week: December 14. The annual holiday art show and sale hosted by Arts & Health at Duke features local North Carolina-based artisans who are displaying and selling their work to Duke Health employees, visitors, and patients in the main concourse of Duke Hospital.
Art will be available for purchase from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Featured artisans 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, Wednesdays, to be considered for weekend inclusion.
Duke Heart in the News:
December 1 — James Tcheng
Business North Carolina
2023 Top Doctors: A report on the state’s most respected doctors as selected by their peers
December 5 — David Harpole
OncLive
December 7 — Neha Pagidipati, Jennifer Green, Susan Spratt, Jashalynn German, Matthew Crowley, Ryan Jeffrey, Ranee Chatterjee, and Bryan Batch
AJMC
Inspiring Clinicians to Take Action on Closing Diabetes Care Gaps
Duke Heart Pulse — December 3, 2023
Highlights of the week:
Pauly Named to Duke Health Leadership Roles, Effective Jan. 31
Duke Health has named Gregory Pauly, currently executive vice president and chief operating officer for Massachusetts General Hospital and the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, to three key leadership roles: group president of Acute Care Services for Duke University Health System; president of Duke University Hospital; and Vice Dean for Clinical and Academic Integration at Duke University School of Medicine. Pauly will join the Duke Health team on Jan. 31, 2024.
In these roles, Pauly will provide oversight of the strategic direction, fiscal management, and program development for all acute care services across DUHS, including Duke University Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, and Duke Raleigh Hospital campuses.
“Greg is an accomplished health care executive with proven experience in hospital operations, ambulatory practice management, strategic business planning, and clinical program development,” said Thomas A. Owens, MD, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Duke University Health System.
“With his vast experience in the operations and administration of a large academic medical center and ambulatory care network, Greg brings a wealth of knowledge and visionary leadership to his new role as group president for Acute Care Services and president of Duke University Hospital,” Owens said.
“As vice dean, Pauly will collaborate closely with clinical chairs, vice deans, IT leaders and other leaders in the School of Medicine and the health system, as well as other relevant Duke schools, to further strengthen the link between clinical and academic missions,” said Mary Klotman, MD, executive vice president for Health Affairs, Duke University and dean of the School of Medicine.
During his more than 20-year career at Mass General, Pauly led development of multiple system-wide service lines, the launch of an ambulatory care transformation program, and extensive work to reduce barriers to discharge and length of stay.
Pauly was instrumental in enhancing the integration with system physicians through new employment and compensation models as well as developing new plans for provider growth.
He was also directly responsible for all administrative and clinical operations of both the hospital and the physician’s organization, enhancing the integration with system physicians through new employment and compensation models as well as developing new plans for provider growth.
We look forward to working with him!
Fellowship Matches Announced
We’re excited to share our fellowship matches for 2024! Matches were announced on November 29 as part of National Fellowship Match Day.
Congratulations to the following ten fellows who are joining our Cardiology Fellowship training program:
- Tess Allan will join us from the University of Chicago
- Cosette Champion will join us from Washington University, St. Louis
- Vincent Delgado will join us from the University of Texas, Southwestern
- Jemi Galani will join us from Emory
- Mugdha Joshi will join us from Stanford
- Hubie Haywood, Jonathan Kusner, Hannah Schwennesen, and Nishkala Shivakumar will all join us from Duke
- Josh Sink will join us from Northwestern University
Congratulations to our new Advanced Heart Failure fellows:
- Haya Aziz will join us from the University of Pennsylvania, where she is completing her training in cardiac imaging.
- David Elliot will join us from our cardiology fellowship program
- Joseph Lerman will join us from our advanced training in cardiology program
Congratulations to our new Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellow:
- Ilya Shadrin will join us from our cardiology fellowship program
Congratulations to our Adult Congenital Heart Disease fellow:
- Nina Morgan will join us from the University of Florida
The Department of Medicine released a celebratory Match Day video, to celebrate our Duke internal medicine residents and their matches; a full list of all where Duke residents matche can be found here: https://duke.is/4/hjc9.
A big shout-out to all of our program leaders, current fellows, and faculty members who took time to interview candidates and to showcase all that our programs at Duke have to offer. We’re looking forward to working with our newest team members when they join us in July.
Well done, everyone!
Latest AF Treatment Guidelines Released; Piccini, Thomas among co-authors
Congratulations to Duke electrophysiologists Jonathan Piccini and Kevin Thomas, Duke fellowship graduates Paul Hess and Anne Marie Valente, and to each of their co-authors on the publication of the latest atrial fibrillation treatment guidelines! 
The 2023 ACC/AHA/ACCP/HRS Guideline for the Diagnosis and Management of Atrial Fibrillation: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines provides recommendations to guide clinicians in the treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation. It was published this week in Circulation.
Way to go!
Duke Fellows Represent Duke Heart for STEM Goes Red
A big shout out to our amazing fellows, Sarah Snow and Kiki Osude, who generously gave their time to be mentors at the American Heart Association’s “STEM Goes Red” event for middle school girls in Wake and Durham counties on Thursday, November 9. The event hosted 110 girls chosen from local Title I schools to promote interest and increase exposure to the STEM fields.
Kiki and Sarah conducted speed mentoring sessions where they met with 4-5 girls every 7 minutes to discuss STEM opportunities, and in particular, key mentors and role models, obstacles that had to be overcome, and why they decided to pursue medicine/cardiology. The students were really engaged and excited. Neha Pagidipati and Melissa Daubert also participated in the event as expert panelists.
To learn more about the event, you can see a short report here from ABC-11, WTVD, or by visiting the AHA’s website: https://duke.is/2/bd3g
Great work, Sarah and Kiki!!
Shout-outs to Andreae, Lerman, and Sullivan!
We received a shout-out to several cardiology fellows this week:
“A shout out and huge THANK YOU to the following fellows who went above and beyond to cover CICU and night shifts on short notice in the past week: Andrew Andreae, Joe Lerman and Lonnie Sullivan.” — Anna Lisa Chamis, MD
Solid teamwork!
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
- Masking is strongly recommended throughout all clinical areas during respiratory virus season, from now through early March.
Cardiology Grand Rounds
Dec. 5: The Wild, Wild West of Peripheral Intervention: Innovations and Evidence Formation to Standardize Practice with Eric Secemsky of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. 7 a.m., DN2001 or via Zoom. Please note time change!
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
Dec. 6: DHP Case Presentation with Jawan Abdulrahim. Noon. In-person only, DMP 2W96.
Dec. 8: EKG Review with Thomas Bashore. Zoom only.
Office of Faculty Announces Event with Israni of Stanford Medicine, Feb. 26
Academic Medicine, with all its complexities, naturally includes conflict amongst its crucial collaborators – trainees, faculty, staff, communities and more. 21st century leadership skills require all of us to strategically leverage components of this conflict for constructive change, with intentional and thoughtful actions. This talk will weave together themes from restorative justice and design thinking; and how they can be applied to artificial intelligence and JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion), offering a case for new ways of leveraging conflict to advance a culture of connectedness and belonging. The featured speaker will be Sonoo Thadaney Israni of Stanford University’s Presence Center.
February 26: Leveraging Conflict for Constructive Change. 4-5:30 p.m., DN 2002. Presented by the Office for Faculty. Refreshments will follow. To learn more and register: https://duke.is/8/8d7f.
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.
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