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Duke Heart Pulse — May 19, 2024

By Tracey Koepke in Uncategorized on May 19, 2024.

Duke Heart Pulse – May 19, 2024

Chief’s message – Grief and Community.

Over the last several weeks we have been having a conversation with Dr. Tony Galanos in the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative care around Grief and how we can help support our clinicians / health system staff in moments of stress and grief. This was highlighted this Monday in a wonderful grand rounds by one of our finishing fellows – Dan Loriaux. During one part of his talk, he highlighted how in ICU and hospital care – he and Dr. Galanos have worked on a program around debriefs for our fellows to help process the grief in taking care of so many sick patients. We aim to continue this and to build a community of support.

This week brought another reminder to us on the fragile nature of life and the needed strength of our community. We lost one of our recent graduates and true leader in the field – Aslan Turer. We provide his story below. I personally remembered Aslan for his unwavering humor, intellect, and energy in helping improve how we cared for patients – often holding everyone to the care standard. He will be dearly missed and our Duke Heart Community will work to support his wife Christy and their children. Please keep them in your thoughts and hearts.

Updates from the week:

In Memoriam: Aslan Turer, MD, MHS, MBA, interventional cardiologist

We have been deeply saddened this weekend at the passing of Aslan Turer, MD, 49, on Friday morning. An interventional cardiologist and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW), Turer trained at Duke through residency and multiple fellowships, and was a friend to many of our Duke Heart team members. Turer had fought cancer for the past several years. His wife, Dr. Christy Turer, also trained at Duke. They have five children. Our thoughts are with his family and with his many friends and colleagues. We know he will be greatly missed.

Turer attended medical school at the University of California San Francisco, then completed internal medicine residency at Duke University Hospital, as well as fellowship trainings in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology at Duke. Turer helped establish a multidisciplinary hypertrophic cardiomyopathy program at UTSW, which achieved an HCMA Center of Excellence rating in 2018. He partnered recently with Andrew Wang, MD, on a perspective piece for Circulation in February 2023 entitled “Cardiac Myosin Inhibitors: Unlocking Potential to Improve Treatment in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy”.

Sparkman Hillcrest Funeral Home is handling arrangements for the family; Services will be this week, as follows:

Memorial Service: Wednesday, May 22, at Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home, 7405 W Northwest Hwy., Dallas, TX 75225
Muslim Prayer, 5:30 p.m., in Arabic. Christian Memorial service, 6 p.m., followed by Reflection time

Funeral, Thursday, May 23, 1 p.m.
Location: Christ the King Catholic Church, 8017 Preston Rd, Dallas, TX 75225

Aslan’s family has asked that attendees wear color and not come in traditional dark funeral attire as Aslan wanted this to be a celebration of life.

We asked for memories of Aslan for today’s issue of Pulse and received the following:

“If ever there was a person one might call a “character,” certainly Aslan Turer was one. A terrific doctor and teacher, Aslan was frequently unpredictable, a bit quirky, and a delightful prankster. I remember vividly how he and I would get into these drawn-out, crazy, and often hilarious email wars — with each trying to outdo the other with an ever more outlandish statement of silliness or goofiness. We often let the whole division in on the back and forth. As I recall, Aslan always seemed to win these verbal battles with some kind of comeback I was never clever enough to overcome. He was just fun to be around. Even more, Aslan was a sincere, loving and simply wonderful person. The world has lost a very special human being way too soon. He will be fondly remembered by all who were fortunate enough to know him.” – Thomas Bashore, MD

“Aslan and I started as interns at Duke in 2001, living in the same apartment building and were fast friends despite being from very different backgrounds. I have so many fond memories, but the most special ones were when Catherine and I would meet Aslan for a late dinner and trivia at James Joyce – where he would often be found “reading” his Lancet or NEJM, which we all established was a decoy for trying to find a mate. Later in fellowship, he moved to south Durham and we would meet in the back bar of Lantern in Chapel Hill where he had a permanent tab and everyone knew him and his sense of humor and style.

I am so saddened about his death and our thoughts are with Christy and their kids. He was truly one of the smartest, kindest, and most clever people I’ve encountered in Medicine and in life.” – Schuyler Jones, MD

Our condolences to all.

SOM Faculty Awards

Congratulations to all School of Medicine 2024 Faculty Award winners – but especially to our wonderful cardiovascular faculty and colleagues:

Adrian Hernandez, MD, professor of medicine in cardiology received an Excellence in Professionalism Award
Christopher Holley, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine in cardiology received a Research Mentoring Award
Anita Kelsey, MD, MBA, professor of medicine in cardiology received the Master Clinician/Teacher Award
Neha Pagidipati, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine in cardiology received a Research Mentoring Award
Madhav Swaminathan, MBBS, professor of anesthesiology, cardiothoracic anesthesiology/ critical care, received the Master Clinician/Teacher Award
Annemarie Thompson, MD, professor of anesthesiology, pediatric cardiothoracic anesthesiology, received a Leonard Palumbo Jr., MD Faculty Achievement Award

The awards were presented on Monday, May 13 during the 2024 Spring Faculty Celebration held at the Doris Duke Center, Sarah Duke Gardens.

Congratulations and well-deserved!

DCRI Fellowship Graduation Celebrated

Graduating DCRI Fellows were celebrated at the University Club in Durham on May 9.

We are thrilled to share the following award winners who were recognized during the celebration:

Ilia Shadrin, MD, PhD, (cardiology) was awarded the DCRI Fellowship Citizenship Award, designed to recognize a graduating DCRI research fellow. Fellows considered for this award are expected to have demonstrated the following key attributes during their DCRI tenure: possesses strong character and leadership, devoted service to the DCRI, accepts responsibility and duties, has a positive attitude towards peers, the DCRI and the medical community, eager to learn and to teach others, and shows care and concern for others and helps them when needed.

Adam DeVore, MD, was recognized with the Robert M. Califf Award for Outstanding Mentorship, designed to recognize a DCRI faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in mentorship activities for DCRI research fellows. Faculty members considered for this award are expected to have mentored fellows at the DCRI and to have demonstrated enthusiasm and commitment towards the training of fellows in clinical research activities.

Congratulations Ilia and Adam!

Sullivan Honored with Teaching Award

Congratulations to cardiology fellow Lonnie Sullivan, MD! He was selected as this year’s recipient of the Fellowship Teaching Award by the Internal Medicine residents.

Way to go, Lonnie!

DHIP Update: Changes to Telehealth Video Visits and G2211 Code

Since the pandemic began, Duke Health has been able to convert all necessary patients to telehealth visits in an efficient manner, despite many changes. Now, since most of our services are video visits where standard E&M codes are used, we have decided to align our approach and use the level of service (LOS) menu.

Two Important Changes Coming to Telehealth (Video) Visits and for the G2211 Code

Adding back the Level of Service (LOS) Menu to video visits
Changes to G2211 Reminders: Reminders now in video visits and reminders now for all payers

Beginning May 14, the Level of Service (LOS) menu will be added back to the video visit encounters. As a result of this implementation, all E & M codes found in LOS will be removed from charge capture to prevent duplicate billing, and encounters created on the fly will still have the same charge capture (and no LOS) that exists today.

Moreover, because G2211 code is being recognized for payment by Medicare, Medicare advantage, UHC, and a few small others, and Medicaid is asking to submit this data for future consideration, there will now be G2211 reminders in all telehealth visits and visits for all payer types.

For more information on these changes, please visit the Changes to Telehealth Video Visits and G2211 Code page.

Thank you for your continued support and hard work!

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

May is American Stroke Month and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
May is Duke Health’s inaugural Team Member Appreciation Month
National Hospital Week ends today.
Save the Date: June 12, 4-5 p.m., State of the School Address (SOM)

Cardiology Grand Rounds

May 21: Capturing the Left Bundle: Insights Into Conduction System Pacing with Ilia Shadrin. 5 p.m., DN 2002 or via Zoom.

May 28: The Ross Operation — The Ultimate Aortic Valve Replacement? with Ziv Beckerman. 5 p.m., DN2002 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

May 22: EP Case Conference with Sara Coles and Ivan Nenadic Wood. Noon, DMP 2W96 (in-person only).

May 24: Coronary Anatomy & Lesion Interpretation with Tom Bashore. Noon, Zoom only.

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:

May 10 — Monique Starks/DCRI

WRAL

Forsyth County demonstrates how drones can deliver AEDs to heart attack victims sooner

May 13 — Senthil Selvaraj

Inside Precision Medicine

Genetic Variant Linked to Cardiovascular Disease and Death in Black Americans

May 13 — Senthil Selvaraj

WBZ Newsradio 1030 (Boston)

Study finds clue to greater heart disease in Black Americans

May 13 — Duke University (Selvaraj)

WBZ News/CBS Boston