Duke Heart Pulse — February 25, 2024
Highlights of the week:
Heart Team Implants 1500th Durable VAD
Congratulations to our Duke Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) Program for reaching a program milestone: a total of 1500 durable VAD implants have been completed at Duke University Hospital (DUH) as of this past week. The first durable VAD placed at DUH occurred in 1994.
“Achieving 1500 VAD implants is a testament to the unwavering dedication, clinical expertise, and commitment of each member of our multidisciplinary team and the community partners who identify patients that may benefit from this therapy, said Carmelo A. Milano, Joseph W. and Dorothy W. Beard Distinguished Professor of Experimental Surgery and division chief of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at Duke Health in a statement to team members.
“As one of the first VAD centers certified by The Joint Commission, we are proud of the high standards and quality care provided to each VAD patient at Duke,” Milano adds. “Each implant represents a life impacted and a step forward in delivering comprehensive advanced heart failure care to the patients of our region.”
VADs are durable mechanical circulatory support devices used in patients who have reached end-stage heart failure. They are mechanical pumps that help a patient’s failing heart continue to pump blood through their body. Some patients receive a VAD as a “bridge-to-transplant” therapy while waiting for a heart transplant; others receive VADs as “destination therapy” — long-term placement without receiving a heart transplant. Early VADs were devices that were solely meant to keep people alive in a hospital until a donor heart could be found for them. Now, the devices have improved so much that many patients can not only leave the hospital but potentially live on VAD support for the rest of their lives.
“When this technology became available, we were fully in it from the beginning because we saw a much-needed gap in available treatments,” says Laura Blue, DNP, nurse practitioner and Duke’s lead VAD coordinator since 2003. “We had the resources and the desire to help more patients and it has been awesome to see people get chunks of their life back. To see them have more time to meet their dreams and have their lives improved. Giving people the ability to complete things they want to do and have more time with their families and accomplish goals has been the best part of this process.”
Milano attributes our VAD success to the many people who have been part of the VAD team over the years, especially those who led the way at the very beginning, including thoracic surgeons Peter van Trigt, MD (now at Moses Cone) and Kevin Landolfo, MD (now at Mayo Jacksonville). The entire current team has great synergy and drive and Milano attributes a lot of that to the two surgeons who are currently driving the VAD program – Jacob Schroder, MD, and Jeffrey Keenan, MD, and cardiology partners including Stu Russell, MD, and lead VAD coordinator Laura Blue, who, he says, has probably put more time into the VAD program than anyone.
VAD technology has evolved from large pulsatile devices to smaller rotary flow pumps over the years and Duke has been a leading site for clinical research in the development of many of the devices. Duke was the leading enroller for the HeartMate II LVAD clinical trial, the HVAD HeartWare clinical trial, and the MOMENTUM HeartMate 3 clinical trials, according to Milano.
“These three devices are probably the most common VADs we’ve used in reaching this 1500th milestone,” said Milano. “And we were leaders in the clinical trials that led to the FDA approval of those devices.”
Stu Russell, MD, Duke’s regional director for advanced heart failure agrees. “If you look back over the years at the kinds of pumps that have been studied, that led us to the ones we’re using today, Duke has been one of the highest enrollers in all of the clinical trials. Our patients have helped pave the way for VADs getting better and better over time.”
Russell says physicians are seeing fewer strokes occurring with VADs and less clotting – that the pumps have gotten better, and smaller, the batteries last longer, and the devices are more reliable than ever.
“Heart failure is the number one discharge diagnosis in most hospitals in America,” Russell says. “It’s everywhere and here in the south, with the rates of hypertension and coronary disease, there is even more of it. There are a ton of people developing and a lot of people dying of heart failure every year. As good as we’ve done and as high a number of VADs as we have implanted — it’s just a drop in the bucket compared to how many more people could probably benefit.”
The team sees reaching this milestone as an accomplishment that goes beyond Duke. They stress the partnerships with referring physicians across the region who choose to send their patients for an evaluation at Duke.
Regionally, the southeast has a very high prevalence of heart failure — higher than anywhere else in the United States,” says Stephanie Barnes, MSN, AGNP, CHFN, clinical director for Advanced Heart Failure at Duke. “Based on our transplant and durable VAD volumes combined, while they’re high and we are leading the way in providing advanced heart failure care to patients, we anticipate there are many patients out there who are not receiving these therapies, simply because they’re not making it to the door of advanced heart failure centers, or they’re making it too late.”
Duke’s durable VAD program has developed alongside its heart failure program, which reached a program milestone of 2000 completed heart transplants in December. The team hit a program and U.S. record of 161 heart transplants completed in 2023.
“Advanced heart failure patients are some of the most severely ill patients we see as cardiologists,” says Chetan Patel, MD, Duke Heart’s Vice Chief for Outreach and Network Development. “Not many heart centers can say they have achieved such a milestone and it’s due to the work of an amazing team over the years.”
We are so proud of this team and the thousands of lives they’ve touched. Congratulations!
Support Frazier-Mills, Duke Health’s 2024 AHA Woman of Impact!
Please join us in supporting electrophysiologist Camille Frazier-Mills, MD, one of the Triangle American Heart Association’s Women of Impact in her campaign to raise funds to support Go Red for Women.
Frazier-Mills is representing Duke Health as a Woman of Impact in the 2024 campaign and we want to help her reach her campaign goal. By donating, each of us can support her campaign and help ensure more women have equitable access to cardiovascular care and better representation in critically needed medical research.
Check out Camille Frazier-Mills’ campaign page and please donate by April 4.
Every year across the country, a select group of individuals are nominated to be a part of Woman of Impact because of their passion and drive to make a difference. This 9-week blind competition is relentlessly focused on women’s heart health. The campaign launched on National Wear Red Day (Feb. 2) and closes on April 4. During this time, the nominees work to build campaign plans, recruit Impact teams, and inspire their networks to support the American Heart Association’s lifesaving mission.
At the end of the campaign, this special group of changemakers will be celebrated for the overall impact they have on the AHA’s mission and the Triangle community. The nominee who makes the greatest impact and raises the most funds locally will be named a local 2024 Woman of Impact Winner.
Additionally, the nominee who makes the greatest impact nationwide will be named the American Heart Association 2024 National Woman of Impact Winner.
Let’s help her reach and exceed her goal – let’s help her WIN! Go, Camille!
Rymer Accepted to ACC Emerging Faculty Leadership Academy
Congratulations to Jenn Rymer, MD, assistant professor of medicine in cardiology! We learned this week that she has been accepted into the 2024 American College of Cardiology (ACC) Rick Nishimura, MD, MACC and Patrick T. O’Gara, MD, MACC Emerging Faculty Leadership Academy.
Established in 2005, the ACC Emerging Faculty Leadership Academy supports early-career academic cardiologists who strive to become clinician educators. Participants learn evidence-based teaching strategies and core skills along with other members of their cohort at Heart House in Washington, DC.
Duke cardiologists recently selected for this highly competitive opportunity include Nishant Shah (2023), Tony Gutierrez, MD (2022), and Adam DeVore, MD (2019).
Congratulations, Jenn! We are so excited for you!
USNWR Best Hospitals Voting Now Open
USNWR voting for Best Hospitals by specialty is now open in Doximity. If you are board-certified in the U.S. and have claimed your Doximity profile already, please log into your account by March 27 to complete the brief survey: submit your nominations.
New to Doximity? Find and register your profile to vote. Just go to Doximity’s login page, scroll to the bottom and click on “find your profile” – find yours and claim it/register. You can participate in the survey as long as you register on Doximity prior to the survey closing on March 27.
The survey allows you to list up to five hospitals as Best Hospital in the specialty in which you are board-certified. Your ballot counts even if you vote only for one hospital.
As with primaries and national elections, every vote is important!
Seriously, stop reading and go vote for Duke University Hospital — best of the best for cardiology and heart surgery! We’ll be here when you’re done – there’s more news below!
Armed and Dangerous Drills, Feb. 26-29
Jonathan Bae, MD, CPPS, Chief Quality Officer for Duke University Hospital, announced last week that Duke University Hospital will conduct Armed and Dangerous Drills this coming week (Feb. 26th – 29th). The drills will be discussion-based with the goal of reinforcing education and encouraging preparedness conversations with your teams.
Trained facilitators will present a scenario and questions for participants to think through as well as verbalize what they would do. Throughout the week there will be sessions conducted in-person on units at various times. Before each session, facilitators will round and gather any staff who are available. If you are available during a session in one of your work areas, you are welcome to participate in that session.
We understand that participation in on-unit sessions can be challenging for physician teams, so Zoom options are also available. If this works better for your schedule, please register for a time below:
- Tuesday, Feb. 27th at 7 a.m. — Click here to register for this time
- Tuesday, Feb. 27th at 12 p.m. — Click here to register for this time
- Wednesday, Feb. 28th at 5 p.m. — Click here to register for this time
- Thursday, Feb. 29th at 7 a.m. — Click here to register for this time
- Thursday, Feb. 29th at 12 p.m. — Click here to register for this time
- Thursday, Feb. 29th at 5 p.m. — Click here to register for this time
All sessions will last approximately 30 minutes. While we aim to provide accessible opportunities, with a drill of this scale, we will not be able to incorporate everyone. If you are unable to participate we do encourage refreshing your knowledge via the virtual Armed and Dangerous Training available online via LMS Course Number 00073596.
If you have questions about the drills, please email workplaceviolenceprevention@duke.edu.
Please take some time this week to refresh your preparedness and/or participate in any session for which you’re available.
Feb. 27: Before They Were Stars Series – Perspectives from Dean Mary Klotman
We know this is a busy week, but… here’s a great event to consider: the Program for Women in Internal Medicine (PWIM) continues the popular Before They Were Stars series, now open to ALL in the Department of Medicine. This series highlights the career paths of prominent women physicians, capturing the successes, challenges and opportunities facing women in medicine.
This month PWIM is joined by Dean Mary Klotman! Dean Klotman will describe her career journey in academic leadership through her roles as Chair of Medicine and now as Dean of the School of Medicine.
All faculty and trainees are welcome and encouraged to attend. There will be food and beverages provided outside of the meeting venue beginning at 6 p.m. Conversation with Dean Klotman will start promptly at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27 in Duke Hospital North 2002.
Please join if your schedule permits. We’d love a great showing from Duke Cardiology if you can stay – this event immediately follows CGR in DN 2002!
NC Primary is March 5; Early Voting Ends March 2
Early voting for the March 5 Primary Elections is open through 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 2.
Duke University has an early voting location on campus at Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center. During the early voting period, voters can cast their ballot at any early voting location in the county where they are registered. Other early voting locations across NC can be found here. Voters who missed the registration deadline last week can also register and vote on the same day at early voting locations.
On Election Day, Tuesday, March 5, voters must cast a ballot at their assigned polling location.
Additional information on registering to vote, voting, and voter ID requirements can be found on the Duke Votes website.
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
- February is Heart Month and Black History Month.
- March is National Nutrition Month
- March 8 is International Women’s Day
- USNWR Best Hospitals Voting is open (through March 27). Please check your Doximity account and vote!
Cardiology Grand Rounds
Feb. 27: CTEPH…The Challenges We Face with William Auger, MD. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.
March 12: Arrhythmias in Myocardial Infarction: Beyond the Substrate with Ching Zhu, MD. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.
March 19: Beyond the Bump: Navigating the Interplay of Cardiovascular Health and Obstetrics in the Modern Era with Sarah Snow, MD. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.
March 26: Topic TBD with Brittany Zwischenberger, MD. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.
All Duke Cardiology Grand Rounds recordings are housed on Warpwire. To access recordings please visit:
NET ID and password required. Enjoy!
CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference
Feb. 28: HF/Txp Case Presentation with Seamus Hughes. Noon. DMP 2W96 (in-person only).
March 1: EKG Review with Neil Freedman. Noon. Zoom only.
Upcoming CME Symposia for Spring, 2024
March 8: Cardio-Oncology/Amyloid Symposium
The Southeastern Cardio-Oncology Conference, The Future is Now will take place on March 8 at the JB Duke Hotel in Durham, NC. Event registration is open; the registration deadline is March 5.
Duke cardiologists Michel Khouri and Ravi Karra of Duke’s Precision Cardiomyopathy Program will be presenters during the symposium.
Keynote to be provided by Avirup Guha, director of cardio-oncology and assistant professor of medicine at Augusta University’s Georgia Cancer Center.
The symposium is presented by Duke Cancer Network (DCN) in collaboration with Duke Cancer Institute. For more information, please contact Beth Tanner of DCN.
April 12: Duke Sports Cardiology & Sudden Death in Athletes
May 4: Duke Heart Failure Symposium
Registration is not yet open for the April 12 or May 4 symposia, but if you have questions about either event, please reach out to Christy Darnell.
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:
February 16 — Duke University Hospital/Health System
Becker’s Hospital Review
24 most reputable US academic medical centers
February 18 — Carmelo Milano and Jacob Schroder
Innovando News (Italy)*
Fifty million euros for the first Italian artificial heart
*mention is in photo caption
February 19 — Duke Health
Medical Economics
How to keep your patients happy: 6 steps to reduce long wait times and improve patient satisfaction
February 20 — Duke University (biomechanical engineering)
Healthcare-in-Europe.com
Should these pills go together? ML model predicts drug interactions
February 20 — Stephen Greene
Managed Healthcare Executive
Stephen Greene, MD, Gives Insight on the New Heart Failure Drug Sotagliflozin
February 20 — Christopher Granger
The Laurinburg Exchange
Scotland works to increase cardiac arrest survival rates
February 21 — Stephen Greene
HCP Live
Experts’ Perspectives: Top Issue Facing Cardiology in 2024
February 21 — John Reynolds and Taylor Stephenson (lung tx patient)
WRAL (NBC Raleigh)*
Woman recovering after receiving her third double-lung transplant at Duke Health
*carried also by WRAZ (Fox 50) & WILM (Wilmington, NC Channel 10)
February 21 — John Reynolds and Taylor Stephenson
WNCN (CBS17 Raleigh)
‘I don’t want to die yet’: Woman receives life-saving 3rd double lung transplant at Duke Hospital
February 22 — Jacob Klapper and Taylor Stephenson
New York Post
February 23 — Taylor Stephenson
People.com
Woman, 26, Recovers from 3rd Double Lung Transplant in 8 Years: ‘I Was Getting Another Chance’
Duke Heart Pulse — February 18, 2024
Highlights of the week:
Loring Receives Career Development Award
Congratulations to Duke electrophysiologist Zak Loring, MD, who has been awarded a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) VISN 6 Career Development Award (CDA) for his study Improving Disparities in Atrial Fibrillation Care Through Development of Machine Learning Risk Models. Loring’s research will implement an ECG-based machine learning model to identify high-risk Veterans in the rural community with atrial fibrillation.
Through early identification and timely delivery of advanced treatment strategies, such as catheter ablation, Loring aims to prevent the development of heart failure. J. Antonio Gutierrez, MD will serve as Loring’s primary mentor for this award.
VISN 6 is the VA’s Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network, one of 23 Veterans Integrated Service Networks of the Veterans Health Administration. VISN 6 is comprised of eight VA Medical Centers (including Durham VAMC) and 15 community-based outpatient clinics.
VA Section Chief, Raj Swaminathan, MD, noted that this project directly builds on work Loring is completing through a VA ADAPT COIN grant award.
Gutierrez also holds a full CDA award, so this represents two CDAs awarded to our faculty in the last three years!
Congrats, Zak!!
Pauly Begins as DUH President
Tomorrow, Feb. 19, we welcome Greg Pauly to his new role as president of Duke University Hospital. Pauly will also serve 
as group president of Acute Care Services for Duke University Health System and as Duke University School of Medicine’s Vice Dean for Clinical and Academic Integration.
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.
Pauly is joining Duke after serving as executive vice president and chief operating officer for Massachusetts General Hospital.
Please give him a warm welcome when you see him!
Jessica May Joins Heart Development Team
Please join us in welcoming Jessica Baga May, a major gifts officer for Duke Health Development and Alumni Affairs (DHDAA), to our Duke Heart team! May is now serving as one of our primary team leads focused on increasing and managing philanthropic support of Duke Heart. May joined Duke Health’s development team in 2021; her transition to Duke Heart officially began on February 1.
May’s efforts while at Duke Health have focused on grateful patient fundraising within the Department of Surgery. She will continue to support several of those surgical areas but will expand her focus to include the Heart team.
May says she is excited to be part of our team and that she hopes to serve as an asset to building philanthropic support for the work we do. We asked her what she’d most like our faculty to know about grateful patient fundraising.
“One of the most important things for faculty to know specifically about grateful patient philanthropy is that it’s a relationship-building process. Part of a development officer’s role is establishing a rapport and a connection with our faculty partners, and identifying if and how each faculty member wants to be involved in the fundraising process.”
May says that her initial goal is to speak with members of the faculty, get to know them, and learn about the experiences they have had with philanthropy. She’ll answer any questions you have about the fundraising process and will look to understand how you prefer to be engaged over time.
“I am here to enable a process for those who want to be engaged with philanthropy, both on the donor side and the faculty side, in a way that is fully respectful of patient care as the top priority.
Before joining Duke, May served as Senior Development Officer for Leadership Gifts at Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA. She has also served as a major gifts officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, and Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Although her professional experience is largely rooted in higher education, her background includes growing up as a child of a cardiologist. She says her father, a now-retired private practice interventionalist, taught her how to work an EKG machine and let her play with pacemaker models as a child.
We are excited to have Jessica working with us in Duke Heart. You can anticipate hearing from her as she starts reaching out to introduce herself to faculty members.
Welcome, Jessica!
Thank you, Residents & Fellows!
Duke is celebrating Graduate Medical Education Week from Feb. 18-26, a time to recognize all our residents and fellows and those who work to lead and support these programs, including program directors, associate program directors, program coordinators, and all vice chairs of education. Enjoy the week!
Califf Recognized with Duke Centennial ‘Spotlight’
Duke alum and cardiologist Robert Califf, MD was highlighted this week in a ‘centennial spotlight’ as part of Duke University’s Duke 100 Centennial Celebration. To view the current FDA Commissioner’s spotlight and all those who will be recognized throughout the year, please visit the Duke 100 site.
Cardiac Surgical Innovations Highlighted in SOM’s Magnify
This week’s feature story in Magnify, Duke School of Medicine’s online magazine, covers recent innovations in pediatric heart surgery for congenital heart defects including partial heart transplantation, “domino” transplants, and the recent heart-thymus co-transplant. Told through a series of interviews with Drs. Joe Turek, Doug Overbey, Louise Markert, and Allan Kirk, Saving More Babies Through Innovation in Pediatric Heart Surgery, looks at lives saved, the challenges of congenital surgery, and hope for the future.
ICYMI: Fuller Delivers Sanford Lectureship
Dr. Stephanie Fuller, the Thomas L. Spray Endowed Chair in Pediatric Heart Surgery at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania delivered the Sanford Lectureship on Wed., February 14th as part of Duke Surgery Grand Rounds. A recording of her lecture, Congenital Heart Surgery: Outcomes, Innovation and Adults can be viewed in Duke Box.
She gave a terrific presentation – the recording is well worth watching.
Early Voting Begins for 2024 Primary Elections
Early voting for the March 5 Primary Elections is now open! The early voting period runs through Saturday, March 2. Duke University has an early voting location on campus at Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center. During the early voting period, voters can cast their ballot at any early voting location in the county where they are registered. Other early voting locations across NC can be found here. Voters who missed the registration deadline last week can also register and vote on the same day at early voting locations. On Election Day, voters must cast a ballot at their assigned polling location.
The primary elections in NC include candidates for President, Governor, all 170 members of the state legislature, 14 congressional seats, one NC Supreme Court seat, various judicial positions, and other Council of State positions including Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Commissioner of Agriculture, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Commissioner of Labor, Commissioner of Insurance, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and State Auditor. Registered Democrats, Republicans, or Libertarians must vote their party’s primary ballot, but Unaffiliated voters can choose which party’s ballot to vote.
NC voters are now required to provide photo ID at the polls. A list of acceptable forms of ID can be found on the State Board of Elections website. Duke University students still have the opportunity to request a student voter ID card approved by the State Board of Elections last year. Additional information on registering to vote, voting, and voter ID requirements can be found on the Duke Votes website.
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
- February is Heart Month and Black History Month.
- It’s GME Week 18-26
Cardiology Grand Rounds
Feb. 20: Closing Arguments on the Management of Atrial Septal Defects with Richard Krasuski. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.
All Duke Cardiology Grand Rounds recordings are housed on Warpwire. To access recordings please visit:
NET ID and password required. Enjoy!
CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference
Feb. 21: DHP Case Presentation with Eric Xie. Noon. DMP 2W96 (in-person only).
Feb. 23: TBD with TBD. Noon. Zoom only.
Virtual: AHA Hands-Only CPR Demonstration
For team members at Duke who are not required to have BLS certification, please consider participating in the upcoming virtual AHA Triangle Hands-Only CPR demonstration, being held at Noon on Feb. 22. To register please click here. You’ll then receive a confirmation with the Zoom link.
Help us reach 100+ participants from Duke Health!
Office of Faculty — 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.
Upcoming CME Symposia for Spring, 2024
March 8: Cardio-Oncology/Amyloid Symposium
The Southeastern Cardio-Oncology Conference, The Future is Now will take place on March 8 at the JB Duke Hotel in Durham, NC. Event registration is open; the registration deadline is March 5.
Duke cardiologists Michel Khouri and Ravi Karra of Duke’s Precision Cardiomyopathy Program will be presenters during the symposium.
Keynote to be provided by Avirup Guha, director of cardio-oncology and assistant professor of medicine at Augusta University’s Georgia Cancer Center.
The symposium is presented by Duke Cancer Network (DCN) in collaboration with Duke Cancer Institute. For more information, please contact Beth Tanner of DCN.
April 12: Duke Sports Cardiology & Sudden Death in Athletes
May 4: Duke Heart Failure Symposium
Registration is not yet open for the April 12 or May 4 symposia, but if you have questions about either event, please reach out to Christy Darnell.
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:
February 10 — Duke University
Forbes
Top 20 Universities For NIH Funding; Johns Hopkins Ranks First Again
February 12 — Jen Weber (lung tx patient)
Bonnell Foundation Podcast
All things lung transplant with Jen Weber
February 12 — Elisabetta Politi (Lifestyle & Weight Management Center)
Everyday Health
Using a Salt Substitute Can Slash Risk of Developing High Blood Pressure
February 12 — Marat Fudim
tctMD
More Mortality Reduction Signals With Implantable Hemodynamic Monitors in HFrEF: Meta-analysis
February 13 — Reid Chamberlain
WFMY Greensboro (NC) – CBS News 2
Greensboro 8-year-old becomes first in the world to receive this heart surgery
February 15 — Gerald Bloomfield
NIH News/Fogarty International Center
Finding causes of heart failure in Western Kenya
Duke Heart Pulse — February 11, 2024
Highlights of the week:
Happy Lunar New Year!
Yesterday marked the beginning of the Lunar New Year, a 15-day festival marking the beginning of the new year based on the lunar or lunisolar calendar. It is one of the largest holidays in the world and is celebrated across East Asia.
2024 is the Year of the Dragon. To all Duke Heart faculty and staff celebrating the Lunar New Year, we wish you great happiness and prosperity!
New Gift to Support Heart Transplant Patients and Their Families
A $1.5 million legacy gift from an anonymous family will help support Duke Heart transplant patients.
The donors know firsthand what it is to have a family member with a failing heart, and what a miracle a heart transplant can be. They also know how arduous the transplant journey is.
“Our experience was really, really good,” a member of the family said. “But one of the things we saw around us was how much the financial stress impacted families. Our belief that ‘to whom much is given, of them much is expected’ meant we wanted to make a meaningful gift, and that it was important to do so in a way that will directly relieve some of the strain on patients and their families.”
For the donors that meant directing their gift to help with the financial challenges families undergoing transplantation face.
“We saw all the challenges that were outside the medical system that insurance doesn’t pay for. And so that really led us to target this gift to help cover those expenses. Families might need transportation, they might need lodging, or something else. And they may not be as fortunate as we are, whether it be to live here or financially be able to take care of those things. We wanted to provide something that would help those families,” another family member added.
Over the last two years, Duke has performed more heart transplants than any other center in the world, helping patients from 10 different states. Duke also accepts high-risk patients who have been turned away from other centers.
“This gift provides much-needed support to the families being seen at Duke Heart,” said Chet Patel, MD, vice chief for outreach and network development. “Many patients undergoing complex care such as heart transplant sometimes have to make choices between personal recovery and family wellbeing. A lot of these stressors are financial due to costs not covered by health insurance such as living expenses and health-care-related travel. With the help of generous families who have been through these challenges, we can reduce these stressors and allow the patients to focus on healing.”
Duke Heart is one of the world’s premier heart and vascular centers, treating more than 65,000 patients
annually. It has the largest heart transplant program in the nation and is recognized both nationally and internationally for its advanced research and treatments. Duke has performed numerous heart transplant ‘firsts’ as well as other breakthrough procedures that have vastly improved outcomes for those with failing hearts.
“Our overriding goal at Duke Heart is to improve and innovate care and deliver those therapies as close to patients in their own communities as possible,” said Manesh Patel, MD, Division Chief of Cardiology and director of Duke Heart. “We are grateful for this family’s gift that will help reduce the barriers to transplant care.”
Duke’s Advanced Heart Failure Team Celebrates Recent Milestones
The Duke Heart Advanced Heart Failure Team gathered recently at the Washington Duke Inn to celebrate two significant milestones – the transplantation of 161 hearts in a single year and the transplantation of the 2000th heart at Duke.
The very first heart transplant at Duke was completed in 1985. The volume of heart
transplants performed at Duke University Hospital last year was a record not only for Duke but for any U.S.-based program, according to OPTN data.
Congratulations, team – and Happy Heart Failure Awareness Week to all!
Kraus to Receive ACSM Citation Award
Duke cardiologist and rehabilitation specialist, William Kraus, MD, has been selected as an American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Citation Award winner for 2024. The prestigious Citation Award recognizes distinguished individuals who have made significant contributions to sports medicine and/or to the exercise sciences.
Bill is an outstanding clinician-scientist, mentor, volunteer, and leader in the fields of molecular biology, genetics, integrative human exercise physiology, and metabolism. He joins a highly regarded group of previous winners – many of whom are considered to be the ‘godfathers of exercise physiology’.
Kraus will be honored with the award at the 2024 ACSM Annual Meeting in Boston, May 28-31. He is among six recipients. To see the full list, visit the ACSM award site.
Congratulations, Bill! Well-deserved!
New scientific research will test PREVENT risk calculator among diverse groups
Research teams from Duke University, New York University, and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine will work together to assess the accuracy of the American Heart Association’s (AHA) new PREVENT risk calculator with funding from the AHA’s De-biasing Clinical Care Algorithms project. The de-biasing project is funded by a grant from the Doris Duke Foundation to study the role of race and ethnicity in clinical equations and their impact on equity in disease diagnosis, healthcare delivery, or health outcomes.
Each team received a $150,000 one-year research award to further study how the risk calculator performs among people of various ages, racial and ethnic backgrounds, locations, and socioeconomic levels. The calculator was initially validated using health data from more than 3 million people. The new research intends to test it against even larger datasets.
The AHA PREVENT risk calculator is a new tool for clinicians to help people understand their risk for developing heart disease, stroke, or heart failure. It estimates cardiovascular disease risk based on health factors that assess cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic health. Unlike the current standard for risk prediction, called the Pooled Cohort Equations (PCEs), a person’s race is not included in PREVENT as a factor in determining cardiovascular risk. Previous equations included race as a surrogate for the health effects of structural and systemic inequities, such as racism, that influence cardiovascular risk. The American Heart Association developed the PREVENT calculator with data on people from diverse races and ethnicities and includes additional health measures as well as a social index to predict risk more accurately.
The research teams will work in collaboration to assess the discrimination and calibration, cost-effectiveness, and accuracy
of PREVENT among different sociodemographic groups using health system data from across the U.S. They will also see how it performs compared to the PCEs.
The research projects began January 1, 2024, and include:
- Evaluation of Cardiovascular Risk Prediction Equations across Diverse Sociodemographic Subgroups – co-led by Michael J. Pencina, PhD, chief data scientist for Duke Health, and Chuan Hong, PhD, an assistant professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Duke.
- Evaluating and Validating Equations Across All Race and Ethnicities – led by Sadiya S. Khan, MD, MSc, a cardiovascular epidemiologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
- Debiasing Clinical Care Algorithms – CKD-PC Analysis Core – led by Josef Coresh, MD, PhD, founding director of the Optimal Aging Institute and a professor of population health and medicine at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine in New York.
Khan, Coresh, and Pencina were part of the volunteer writing group that developed the PREVENT equations. PREVENT was created based on data from more than 3 million people, and then validated in a different dataset of more than 3 million people to show that it is accurate in people of various ages, ethnicities, and geographic areas. This new collaborative project will further test how risk prediction with PREVENT applies to a diverse sample of adults and examine accuracy across race and ethnicity groups in the U.S.
Snider to Receive AmSECT National Award of Excellence
Please join us in congratulating Duke perfusionist Scott Snider! We learned this week that he has been selected as the winner of the 2024 American Society of ExtraCorporeal Technology (AmSECT) Award of Excellence.
This award is presented to a perfusionist who has demonstrated excellent work exemplifying creativity and intellectual originality in extracorporeal technology. The award is presented for excellence in any area such as education, continuing education, research, publication, or leadership, according to AmSECT.
Snider will receive the award during the 62nd AmSECT International Conference which is scheduled for March 20-24 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans, LA.
Congratulations, Scott!
Duke Kannapolis Community Registry Marks Milestone with Industry License
The Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) announced last week that Personal Genome Diagnostics is the first company to obtain a license for materials from the MURDOCK Study, a unique community registry and biorepository managed by CTSI and based at Duke’s Kannapolis research site in Kannapolis, NC. The registry and biorepository include samples and associated data from more than 12,000 participants.
Licensing in support of industry research and development, in collaboration with the Duke Office of Translation and Commercialization (OTC), is one of a broad range of uses of the registry available through the Biorepository Transformation Initiative. This initiative makes thousands of biospecimens and associated clinical outcomes data available to researchers both inside and outside of Duke. Duke investigators can easily explore the cohort with just a few clicks using the data exploration tool. The storefronts summarize data and samples at a glance for all interested researchers.
Through the initiative, Duke investigators have recently advanced biomarker research in the areas of heart failure, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes, and the Duke School of Nursing has obtained over 20,000 biological samples and linked data to advance research in health equity and social drivers of health.
Researchers who are interested in accessing samples for academic collaboration or commercial scientific exploration can complete this brief interest form, as a first step in the process.
Congrats, CTSI!
Shout-out to Heart Nursing Leaders!
On Tuesday, February 6, several Duke Heart leaders (pictured below) for the Cardiothoracic Step-Down Units attended the Watts College of Nursing Career Fair. They had the opportunity to meet with over 30 potential candidates and establish shadow experiences. They are hoping this will yield new Heart team members!
Reminder: Tier 2 Status
We are currently in Tier 2 visitation status throughout Duke University Health System. Information is available on Duke Health Now.
Upcoming Events & Opportunities 
- Duke Culture Survey: Jan. 29-Feb.17
- February is Heart Month and Black History Month.
- February 7-14 is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week
- February 11-17 is Heart Failure Awareness Week
- Wednesday, Feb. 14 is National Donor Day
2024 Lefkowitz Distinguished Lecture
Feb. 13: Immunology of Long COVID with Akiko Iwasaki, PhD of Yale. Noon, Great Hall of Trent Semans Center for Health
Education. The event will also be live-streamed.
The Robert J. Lefkowitz, MD Distinguished Lecture aims to celebrate and highlight groundbreaking medical research. This event will be hosted by Dean Mary E. Klotman, Executive Vice President for Health Affairs at Duke University and Dean for Duke University School of Medicine, and Nobel Laureate Robert J. Lefkowitz, MD, James B. Duke Professor of Medicine.
Cardiology Grand Rounds
Feb. 13: Breaking Barriers: The future of heart transplantation with Joseph Lerman. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.
All Duke Cardiology Grand Rounds recordings are housed on Warpwire. To access recordings please visit:
NET ID and password are required. Enjoy!
CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference
Feb. 14: Fellows Forum with Joseph Lerman. Noon. DMP 2W96 (in-person only).
Feb. 16: Radiation Biology and Protection with Robert Reiman. Noon. Zoom only.
Surgery Grand Rounds
Feb. 14: Congenital Heart Surgery: Outcomes, Innovations and Adults with Stephanie Muller. 8 a.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.
Virtual: AHA Hands-Only CPR Demonstration
For team members at Duke who are not required to have BLS certification, please consider participating in the upcoming virtual AHA Triangle Hands-Only CPR demonstration, being held at Noon on Feb. 22. To register please click here. You’ll then receive a confirmation with the Zoom link. Help us reach 100+ participants from Duke Health!
Office of Faculty — Event with Israni of Stanford Medicine, Feb. 26
Academic Medicine, with all its complexities, naturally includes conflict among 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.
Upcoming CME Symposia for Spring, 2024
March 8: Cardio-Oncology/Amyloid Symposium
The Southeastern Cardio-Oncology Conference, The Future is Now will take place on March 8 at the JB Duke Hotel in Durham, NC. Event registration is open; the registration deadline is March 5.
Duke cardiologists Michel Khouri and Ravi Karra of Duke’s Precision Cardiomyopathy Program will be presenters during the symposium.
Keynote to be provided by Avirup Guha, director of cardio-oncology and assistant professor of medicine at Augusta University’s Georgia Cancer Center.
The symposium is presented by Duke Cancer Network (DCN) in collaboration with Duke Cancer Institute. For more information, please contact Beth Tanner of DCN.
April 12: Duke Sports Cardiology & Sudden Death in Athletes
May 4: Duke Heart Failure Symposium
Registration is not yet open for the April 12 or May 4 symposia, but if you have questions about either event, please reach out to Christy Darnell.
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:
February 2 — G. Chad Hughes
Medical Dialogues
February 2 — Payal Kohli
Verify This
No, slapping the inside of a person’s elbow can’t prevent or treat a heart attack
February 5 — Susan Dent
The ASCO Post
Cardio-Oncology Is a Growing Subspecialty, but Where Are the Oncologists?
February 6 — Jacob Schroder
Medscape
Método prometedor para evaluar corazones donados con criterios ampliados
February 6 — Duke School of Medicine
Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology
Machine Learning Informs a New Tool to Guide Treatment for Acute Decompensated Heart Failure
February 7 — Adrian Hernandez
Yahoo Noticias (via AHA News)
Más allá de la respiración: cómo el COVID-19 afecta al corazón, al cerebro y otros órganos
(Spanish version of: https://duke.is/z/hd2z)
February 7 — Duke Health/Eric Poon (DPC)
Advisory Board
Duke Heart Pulse — February 4, 2024
Highlights of the week:
February kicked off with several events that were aimed at raising awareness around heart disease and specifically cardiovascular disease in women with GoRed events on Friday February 2nd. We have several examples below of our heart center community including faculty, fellows, staff and patients engaged in Heart Month awareness events. We also highlight the ongoing work within the Heart Center around research and patient care. In upcoming weeks we will highlight the recent STS meeting and some our CT surgery and cardiology care and advances in valvular heart disease. Included below are some pictures from the GoRed – Red Dress event at the Lincoln center in NYC this week that a few of our faculty were able to attend and walk the red carpet.
Voora Appointed Exec Director of VA National Pharmacogenomics Program
Congratulations to Deepak Voora, MD, associate professor of medicine in cardiology! Voora has been appointed Executive Director for the Veterans Affairs National Pharmacogenomics Program.
Since 2019, Voora and his team have designed and implemented an end-to-end system for implementing pharmacogenomics (PGx) into routine clinical care across the VA. This includes access to PGx testing, funding, patient- and provider education, changes to the electronic medical record, clinical decision support systems, population health management tools, pharmacist consultation, and implementation workflows targeting specific patient populations most likely to benefit from PGx testing.
The VA’s National Pharmacogenomics Program currently supports PGx testing and services for the nearly 30,000 U.S. Veterans throughout the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) who are prescribed more than 60 common medications that are impacted by PGx each year. The Veterans Health Administration consists of more than 110 Veterans Affairs Health Care systems.
Heart Team Launches Use of Renal Denervation Device; 1st in VAHS & NC
Duke cardiologists Tony Gutierrez, MD, the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) Cath Lab Director, and Raj Swaminathan, MD, the Durham VAMC Chief of Cardiology, have performed the first renal denervation procedures for the treatment of hypertension in the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System (VAHS). The team used a recently FDA-approved ultrasound renal denervation device, making it the first commercial use of the device in the entire VAHS and any hospital in NC.
Hypertension, also known as ‘high blood pressure,’ puts those who have it at risk for heart disease and stroke — the leading causes of death in the U.S. Nearly half of adult Americans have the condition, but only about one in four have it under control, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The latest guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association define stage 1 hypertension as a blood pressure at or above 130/80 mmHg and stage 2 hypertension as a blood pressure at or above 140/90 mmHg.
Initial treatments for hypertension are usually lifestyle interventions and medications that can help lower blood pressure. Despite those treatments, more than one-half of individuals do not achieve recommended treatment goals, according to a recent position statement from the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI). The statement’s team of co-authors, led by Swaminathan, cite the limitations of medical therapy as medication cost, adverse side effects, limited access, and poor adherence.
With the FDA’s approval of two renal denervation devices last year, treatment options are expanding for those with uncontrolled or resistant forms of hypertension, particularly among those at greatest cardiovascular risk.
“The prevalence of hypertension in our Veterans is anywhere from 71 to 87 percent,” Gutierrez says. “The technology that we have now is pretty advanced to go ahead and treat the nerves around the arteries.”
The renal denervation devices are used to disrupt the nerve signals going to the kidneys. The procedure treats high blood pressure and conditions related to high blood pressure, according to Swaminathan. Of the two approved devices, one uses ultrasound technology and the other utilizes radiofrequency ablation.
“Blood pressure control has plateaued over the last decade and existing treatment strategies, including lifestyle changes and medications, are often not enough,” Swaminathan adds. “Renal denervation is a new technology to treat high blood pressure that is safe, durable, and is ‘always on’.”
The patients treated at the Durham VA both had resistant hypertension and were referred to the team by cardiologist Michelle Kelsey, MD, who has built a robust cardiology prevention clinic at the Durham VAMC. The procedures were performed in December.
The renal denervation approach begins with the cardiologist identifying and targeting appropriate segments of the renal arteries with adjacent renal nerves. A catheter is then threaded carefully through blood vessels toward the renal arteries. Once the catheter reaches its target area, energy (using ultrasound or radiofrequency) is delivered and disrupts nerve signals without damaging the arteries or surrounding tissues. The interrupting of nerve signals is what can help reduce high blood pressure, says Swaminathan.
“The overall objective of renal denervation is to provide long-term reduction in blood pressure, especially to Veterans who may not respond well to medication alone,” Gutierrez adds.
Swaminathan says the Position Statement is currently being used by industry and health systems as a guide to launch renal denervation programs around the country.
Congratulations, Raj, Tony, and Michelle!
Duke Celebrates National Wear Red Day!
Thanks to everyone who joined us in wearing red on Friday to celebrate National Wear Red Day! It was terrific to see so many of our teams sporting a bit of red. Check out these pics from teammates throughout Duke University Hospital, Duke Raleigh Hospital and Duke Regional Hospital.
This was a great way for our teams to kick off Heart Month!
Next up:
Hands-Only CPR demonstration:
For team members at Duke who are not required to have BLS certification, please consider participating in the upcoming virtual AHA Triangle Hands-Only CPR demonstration, being held at Noon on Feb. 22. To register please click here. You’ll then receive a confirmation with the Zoom link. Help us reach 100+ participants from Duke Health!
Duke Heart Team Wins Family-Centered Care Award
Congratulations to Callie Tennyson, John Oliver, Dustin Tart, Karen Jooste, Kelly Kester, and their collaborators — Bradi Granger, Catie Dunn, and Kayla Brooks — for receiving the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s (SCCM) “Family-Centered Care Innovation Award” for Duke University Hospital. The award was formally presented during the SCCM’s 53rd Critical Care Congress held last week in Phoenix, AZ.
The Family-Centered Care Innovation Award is presented annually to a program that
demonstrates novel, effective methods of providing care to critically ill and injured patients and their families. The team was recognized for their project, Interprofessional Education for Family Care During Resuscitation.
Way to go!
Reminder: Tier 2 Status
We are currently in Tier 2 visitation status throughout Duke University Health System. Information is available on Duke Health Now.
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
- Duke Culture Survey: Jan. 29-Feb.17
- February is Heart Month and Black History Month.
- February 7-14 is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week
- February 11-17 is Heart Failure Awareness Week
- Wednesday, Feb. 14 is National Donor Day
Cardiology Grand Rounds
Feb. 6: Implementation strategies to address the burden of Heart Failure with Harriette Van Spall of McMaster University. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.
Feb. 13: Breaking Barriers: The future of heart transplantation with Joseph Lerman. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.
All Duke Cardiology Grand Rounds recordings are housed on Warpwire. To access recordings please visit:
NET ID and password are required. Enjoy!
CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference
Feb. 7: HT/Txp Case Presentation with Ivan Nenadic Wood. Noon. DMP 2W96 (in-person only).
Feb. 9: Cardiac PET with Salvadore Borges-Neto. Noon. Zoom only.
Office of Faculty — 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.
Upcoming CME Symposia for Spring, 2024
Feb 6: Stroke Management of the Future? The Potential Role of Factor XI/XIa Inhibitors in Secondary Stroke Prevention.
This is a DukeHeart/TotalCME event with Manesh Patel, et al. In-person at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix, 2nd floor, Phoenix Ballroom. Virtual: Livestream via MedEd On The Go, 8-9:30 p.m., EST. This evening symposium will be held during the International Stroke Conference 2024 in Phoenix.
Join experts to explore how factor XI/XIa inhibitors may transform secondary stroke prevention in patients with acute ischemic strokes and transient ischemic attack risk factors. This data-rich symposium reviews currently available therapeutics and how they affect the coagulation cascade, increasing the potential for serious bleeds. Experts outline new and emerging anticoagulation pharmacotherapy that may mitigate bleeding risks. Through interactive presentations, attendees gain a deep understanding of the rapidly evolving stroke prevention landscape, preparing them to implement the latest approaches, improve clinical practice and boost patient outcomes.
Faculty presenters:
- Valeria Caso, MD, PhD of the University of Perugia
- Mike Sharma, MD, MSc, FRCPC of McMaster University
- Manesh R. Patel, MD of Duke Health
- Ashkan Shoamanesh, MD of McMaster University
Supported by an educational grant from Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals and jointly provided by Duke Heart, MedEd On The Go, and Total CME.
March 8: Cardio-Oncology/Amyloid Symposium
The Southeastern Cardio-Oncology Conference, The Future is Now will take place on March 8 at the JB Duke Hotel in Durham, NC. Event registration is open; the registration deadline is March 5.
Duke cardiologists Michel Khouri and Ravi Karra of Duke’s Precision Cardiomyopathy Program will be presenters during the symposium.
Keynote to be provided by Avirup Guha, director of cardio-oncology and assistant professor of medicine at Augusta University’s Georgia Cancer Center.
The symposium is presented by Duke Cancer Network (DCN) in collaboration with Duke Cancer Institute. For more information, please contact Beth Tanner of DCN.
April 12: Duke Sports Cardiology & Sudden Death in Athletes
May 4: Duke Heart Failure Symposium
Registration is not yet open for the April 12 or May 4 symposia, but if you have questions about either event, please reach out to Christy Darnell.
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:
January 26 — Karen Alexander
Heart.org
What is a heart attack? Cardiologists explain the condition following death of NBA coach
January 26 — Robert Lefkowitz
Business Minds Coffee Chat (podcast)
Episode 123: From Yellow Beret to Nobel Laureate
January 27 — Nenad Bursac and Nicholas Strash
Tech Explorist (IN)
Healing hearts with skin cancer genes
January 29 — Joseph Turek and the Monroe family
The Science Times
January 29 — Robert Lefkowitz
Freedom Pact (podcast)
Episode 317: Dr Robert Lefkowitz – Nobel Prize Winner Shares The Secrets To Unlocking Your Genius
January 29 — G. Chad Hughes
Medpage Today
Cooling Technique Frowned Upon in Aortic Arch Surgery
January 30 — Duke University Hospital
Yahoo News/Insider Monkey
30 Best Cardiology Hospitals In the US
February 2 — Manesh Patel
Triangle Business Journal
Their battle: Slow the growth of heart disease
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