Chief’s message: Academic year Transition
Our Duke Heart group continued the Academic year transitions. In this weeks edition of the Pulse you 
will find updates from our CT surgical groups end of year gathering. Congratulations to the award winners in the training program and CT surgery faculty. We also welcome in our new CT surgery residents. Additionally, we had our new cardiology fellows completing orientation this weekend with 4 days packed with didactic talks, practical management approaches, simulation lab training, and CICU bootcamp. I was lucky enough to be able to stop by on weekend call to see them and welcome them to the group. Told them time goes by fast and there maybe times when they are “drinking from the fire hose,” but the key to the fellowship years is to appreciate the moments, colleagues, and opportunities that they get as they will be gaining skills and forming lifetime friends and memories.
In the upcoming weeks we will be celebrating our Vascular Surgery Residents and Cardiac Anesthesia in-coming residents.
Highlights of the week:
CTS Gathering Celebrates Graduating Residents, Academic Achievement
Our graduating cardiovascular & thoracic surgery trainees were celebrated on Saturday, June 22 at The Cotton
Room in Durham.
Congratulations to Drs. Muath Bishawi, Alejandro Murillo-Berlioz, Aaron Williams, Adam Shoffner, and Zach Fitch (Fitch officially completes training at the end of July; his plans will be announced in a few weeks).
We are pleased to share:
- Aaron Williams, MD is taking an academic faculty position in cardiothoracic surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
- Muath Bishawi, MD, PhD, MPH is taking an academic faculty position in cardiothoracic surgery at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
- Alejandro Murillo-Berlioz, MD is entering private practice in cardiothoracic surgery at St. Anthony’s Hospital, Oklahoma City, OK.
- Adam Shoffner, MD, PhD, is heading into a Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at the University of Michigan.
The graduating CTS chief residents and Jacob Schroder, MD, recipient of the inaugural Thomas D’Amico Teaching Award — the Division of CT Surgery’s new faculty award — are shown here. (L-R are Drs. Bishawi, Williams, Schroder, Fitch, and Murillo-Berlioz). Congrats, Jacob!!
The evening included the annual presentation of awards for academic achievement which go to those receiving the highest scores on the in-training exam. Congrats to (L-R) Drs. Andrew Vekstein, Rebekah Boyd, Alejandro Murillo-Berlioz, and Neel Probhu. Also receiving the academic achievement award was Dr. Vignesh Raman, who is not pictured.
Congratulations to Aaron, Muath, Alejandro, and Adam for completing your Duke training, and to Zach who will finish very soon. Each of you will be missed! We look forward to watching your careers continue to blossom!
Newest Trainees for Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery
Please join us in welcoming three of our newest trainees to their training programs within CTS. They joined us on July 1:
Allison Navarrete-Welton, MD has joined us from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, RI. She is starting the six-year Integrated Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency Program.
Juliann Kosovec, MD, and Lillian Kang, MD recently completed their general
surgery training at Duke and, as part of the Joint General Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency Program, are entering their thoracic surgery training with our CT surgery team.
Welcome Allison, Juliann, and Lillian – we are pleased to have you with us!
We will welcome seven additional cardiovascular and thoracic surgery (CTS) residents and fellows over the coming months. Next week: We will celebrate the graduating and incoming trainees for cardiac anesthesia and vascular surgery.
Duke Heart Grows By One!
We are thrilled to share the newest addition to the Duke Heart family. Please join us in welcoming Beck Allen Kusner, 8 lbs., 1 oz, who arrived on Friday! Congratulations to his parents, Jon and Mary Cate Kusner. Jon is a first-year cardiology fellow.
He’s adorable and we can’t wait to meet him!
Kudos to McDermott
Allison Lindgren shared a terrific note she received this week regarding cardiology nurse practitioner, Jamie McDermott:
“Hi Allison, I really wanted to make sure someone in your leadership team was aware of a situation that evolved over the past
week in which Jaime McDermott went absolutely above and beyond to ensure that a patient was able to get what they needed.
The patient was admitted who is not one of our LVADs (patient is followed by Prisma Health in South Carolina) but fell and broke a leg while visiting family in NC. The whole thing turned into an absolute mess and Jaime spearheaded coordinating everything to ensure they would be safe, comfortable and could have their pain managed well at home. There were times that the patient was difficult yet Jaime approached them in a gentle but firm way that opened the door for fruitful conversation about their overall plan of care. She listened to the patient’s concerns making them feel heard and understood. She spent hours figuring out how to get the patient their needed prescriptions, (patient has SC Medicaid and we couldn’t fill medications via a NC pharmacy.) She coordinated with the Prisma team, the family of the patient (and me) beautifully to ensure that a safe discharge plan was created, including multiple bedside meetings with the patient.
I love all of the APPs that we work with and I always feel that they have the patient’s best interest in mind and do the best they can for all patients, but I was truly impressed by how well Jaime handled this impossibly complicated situation with care and I did not want it to go unnoticed! She is patient, dedicated, knowledgeable, and an exceptional problem solver and is truly an asset to our team.
Thank you for everything y’all do.” — Riley Yang, Clinical Social Worker & Transplant Case Manager, Advanced Heart Failure Therapies, Duke Transplant Center
Amazing work, Jaime!!!
2024 AANP Annual Meeting
The 2024 American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) National Conference was held last weekend (June 25-June 30) in Nashville, TN and we had excellent representation from Duke Heart. Presenters included Callie Tennyson, Allison Dimsdale, and Midge Bowers.
Bowers was a speaker during the seminar entitled “The Intersection of Cardiac, Diabetes, Chronic Kidney Disease and Lipids in Cardiometabolic Disease.”
Tennyson presented Cardiorenal Syndrome: A Love Story during the Cardiorenal Syndrome Updates session.
Dimsdale presented during several sessions including, “Chronic Coronary Disease and Strategies for Tackling Dizziness”. 
Great job!
Seeking Coaches & Walkers: Heart Walk 2024
Duke Health’s recruitment of Coaches and Walkers for the 2024 American Heart Association’s Triangle Heart Walk, scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 8, is well underway, but we are not yet at our goal! Won’t you join us?
Join Manesh Patel’s team: Duke Heart and Sole or start your own team under “Duke Heart & Vascular”. We want to have a huge team representing Duke Heart this year to celebrate not only the AHA’s Centennial, but Duke University’s 100th birthday. Please join us!
To sign up as a Coach, click the button above and on the AHA site, choose the red “Create a Team” button. Walkers can also sign up and join teams on the same site by clicking the red “Join a Team” button.
Let’s come together to make this our best year yet and demonstrate our unwavering dedication to cardiovascular health. Together, we can make a significant impact and pave the way for a healthier future.
The 2024 Heart Walk will be a terrific event and a wonderful way to support our cardiovascular patients. We’ll be talking about Heart Walk all summer with lots of opportunities to join in the fun. Thank you for your ongoing support!
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
Duke Heart Fall 2024 CME Courses
The following symposia will be held this fall:
October 12: Duke Cardiac Imaging Symposium at Trent Semans Center, 7:55am-3:30pm. Course directors are Drs. Sreekanth Vemulapalli and Anita Kelsey.
November 1: the 16th Annual NC Research Triangle Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium at Durham Convention Center, 8:00 a.m. – 3:15p.m. Course directors are Dr. Terry Fortin and Dr. Jimmy Ford (of UNC).
Registration/landing pages are not yet available, but will be shared in Pulse once they are. Questions? Contact Christy Darnell.
Cardiology Grand Rounds
Our CGR season has ended. We will resume in August/September.
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
July 10: Rapid Fire ECG with Neil Friedman. Noon, DMP 2W96.
July 12: Management of NSTEMI with Jennifer Rymer. Noon, Zoom only.
July 17: Malignant Hypertension with Nishant Shah. Noon, DMP 2W96.
July 19: LVAD Basics with Richa Agarwal. Noon, Zoom only.
July 24: Basics of Heart Failure with Stuart Russell. Noon, DMP 2W96.
July 26: Wide Complex Tachycardias with Zak Loring. Noon, Zoom only.
July 31: Dyslipidemia with Nishant Shah. Noon, 2W96.
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:
June 26 — Jonathan Piccini
Health Central
Why Your Heart Beats Faster When You Bend Over and Stand Up
June 28 – Adrian Hernandez
American Heart Association/newsroom
What might the next century hold for cardiovascular disease prevention and care?
June 29 – Duke University Health System (Monique Starks/AED, drone delivery)
Fox 8 News/WGHP (Greensboro, NC)
Forsyth County to use drones in medical emergencies, sheriff’s office says
July 5 — Adrian Hernandez
Japan Today
What might next 100 years hold for cardiovascular disease prevention and care?
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