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Duke Heart Pulse — June 15, 2025

By Tracey Koepke in Uncategorized on June 15, 2025.

Chief’s message: Fellow Graduation and Happy Father’s Day!

Dear Duke Heart Community: We hope you all got to spend time with family celebrating father’s day. We also hope all the fathers and father figures on our team are having a wonderful day today, especially all those who are celebrating for the first time.

This weekend we also celebrated the general fellows graduation. We were able to have a fun gathering celebrating all the amazing fellows who have gone through our fellowship, their supportive families, and the village of people including faculty, staff and colleagues who help us train the next generation. We are especially appreciative at this time of those in our communities that support our fellowship – and we had the pleasure of having Malbert and Alisa Smith join us. Their Academic Cardiology Excellence award and support joins our other awards and support that include the Greenfield award, the Cassel-Saperstein Award, and the Brandt and Belinda Louie award. All of these and other support is much appreciated as we continue to work to keep the fellowship program the best we can make in the country. Please find some photos from the evening included

DCRI Welcomes New Co-Chief Fellows & Incoming Fellows

The Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) Fellowship Program leadership team has announced that Allison “Allie” Levin, MD, MSc (Cardiology) and Henry Foote, MD (Pediatrics) will be the co-chief fellows during the 2025-2026 academic year. Beginning this July, they will step into the positions currently filled by co-chief fellows Mark Kittipibul, MD, and Annette Roberts, MD. Both Levin and Foote bring a wealth of experience and a passion for advancing medical research and patient care.

“I really look forward to working with Allie and Henry in the upcoming academic year,” said Sana Al-Khatib, MD, professor of medicine in cardiology at Duke and DCRI Fellowship Program Director. “As co-chief fellows, they will undoubtedly be committed to supporting their peers and to taking our program to new heights.”

Henry Foote, MD

Henry Foote grew up outside of Boston before attending Yale University for undergraduate training, where he majored in mechanical engineering and molecular biophysics and biochemistry. He earned his medical degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine while conducting cell biology research at Duke University. Foote then returned to Duke for residency, where he completed his combined Internal Medicine-Pediatrics training. Foote is currently pursuing his fellowship training as a Pediatric Cardiologist and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine fellow. He is also working on his master’s in clinical research degree through Duke’s Clinical Research Training Program. His research interest is in improving outcomes in critically ill children.

Allie Levin, MD, MSc

Levin grew up in northern New Jersey and earned her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Columbia University. She went on to pursue a master’s degree in biostatistics at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health while concurrently serving as the research coordinator for the institution’s mechanical circulatory support program. Levin subsequently earned her medical degree from Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. She was also selected by faculty to receive the Janeway Award, presented to the graduating student with the highest achievement and abilities in the graduating class.

Following her many years in New York, Levin completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She is now a third-year Duke general cardiology fellow and in the first of two years of the Duke Clinical Research Institute Fellowship Program. She plans to pursue an advanced fellowship in Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology, with a special interest in the intersection of heart failure and adult congenital heart disease.

Congratulations, Allie and Henry!

The incoming DCRI fellows from cardiology for 2025-2026 are Jonathan Hanna, Seamus Hughes, Anthony Lin, Joshua Rushakoff, Husam Salah, and Aarti Thakkar. Their fellowships begin on July 1. Continuing fellows include Allison Levin and Paula Rambarat.

From Data to Decisions: A Model for Returning Individual Results to Research Participants

Returning individual research results to clinical study participants has not historically been the norm, even for participants with abnormal findings. The paradigm, though, is shifting, with return of results becoming not only a scientific responsibility but also an ethical imperative. However, best practices haven’t been established yet.

A team of Duke researchers led by Svati H. Shah, MD, MS, Ursula Geller Distinguished Professor of Research in Cardiovascular Diseases, and Neha Pagidipati, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine in cardiology, have developed a model using the Project Baseline Health Study (PBHS) for how to effectively communicate results to patients and help empower them towards their health and medical choices. The study also detailed the large number of abnormal results that were returned to participants, highlighting the need to consider these processes early in study design. Results were published in the American Journal of Medicine Open.

As scientific research shifts to emphasize transparency, participant empowerment, and the democratization of data, this model demonstrates the feasibility and value of a comprehensive, systematic approach to returning clinically significant findings in a research context.

Project Baseline launched in 2017 to create a comprehensive reference point, or “baseline,” of good health and to build a robust data platform for studying how health transitions to disease. Over 2,500 participants across three sites, including Duke and Stanford, enrolled and completed assessments conducted by the study team that included a wide range of health data, like clinical, genetic, behavioral, and environmental information, through baseline eye, heart and lung imaging and annual visits, wearable devices, surveys, and biospecimen collection.

Among the 2,002 participants analyzed, nearly 40% would receive at least one result that required immediate or urgent attention. In some cases, individuals received as many as eight separate findings, again highlighting the need to return results to study participants to help them manage and be in control of their health choices. The participants had abnormal results returned to them for a variety of conditions, including vital signs, clinical laboratory testing, chest CT scans and X-rays, electrocardiograms, echocardiograms, and ophthalmologic assessments.

To accomplish this task, a Return of Results (RoR) Committee was established early in the study to oversee the return of findings. They developed a systematic, ethical, and clinically informed process for returning individual-level urgent and emergent results to participants and detailed determination for what types of results should be returned and within what time period.

Some results were more pertinent to get to participants faster than others, given potential clinical implications of the abnormal findings, so the team developed a color-coded flag system to prioritize and categorize results:

Red flag: Emergent, requiring immediate clinical attention

Orange flag: Urgent, but less time-sensitive

Yellow flag: Actionable or uncertain results

Green flag: Within expected clinical range

Participants had their results returned to them by site principal investigators — practicing physicians — or their designees.

However, with that many results to return, there is also a strong need for a streamlined process to alleviate the burden placed on health care professionals. So, the Project Baseline team also developed a predictive model using widely available clinical and demographic variables, like age, sex, body mass index, blood pressure, smoking status, and history of chronic conditions, which helped identify which participants were most likely to have actionable results.

As the research community continues to evolve its approach to participant engagement, the Project Baseline study offers a robust framework for returning results ethically and effectively. It also raises important questions for future studies, such as how to define “urgent” findings and how to balance return policies with participant preferences, and the need to consider design and funding for return of results prior to study initiation.

Project Baseline is a groundbreaking initiative between Duke University, Stanford University and Verily Life Sciences. The Duke Clinical Research Institute serves as the coordinating center. Story by Alissa Kocer for Duke School of Medicine.

IM Resident Works to Raise Awareness of ‘Resi-teering’ Opportunities

Victor Ayeni, MD, a PGY-1 Duke Internal Medicine Resident who is currently interning with electrophysiologist Camille Frazier-Mills, MD, is working to raise awareness of community engagement opportunities throughout Durham for Duke IM residents (and others) who might have time to volunteer with organizations that need some support.

His latest ‘resi-teering’ outreach message:

This is Victor again with more community engagement opportunities for June! Many thanks to people who came out last month, especially those who came and danced with the kiddos of Bull City Fit. As a reminder, the goal of these events is to help people know and love the Durham community for as long as we’re here and hopefully create a lot of fun activities that let residents bond with each other too!

Here’s what we have for the coming month:

Root Causes: Fresh Produce Program

Take a driving tour of Durham and help Root Causes, a Duke organization fighting food insecurity in Durham, by driving groceries to families around the city! They’re in desperate need of help, especially during the summer months. Volunteers are also needed to help pack groceries.

Time: Every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. (for packing) or 10 a.m. to Noon (drivers)

Location: Uncle Harry’s General Store (1925 Yearby Avenue)

Sign-Up: select a time slot at this link

Contact: Scott Brummel (419-708-4569, scott.brummel@duke.edu)

Durham Refugee Day

Come and celebrate Durham’s refugee and immigrant communities at Durham Refugee Day 2025!

Time: Saturday, June 21 from 3-6 p.m.

Location: Durham Central Park

Sign-Up: You can just drop by and celebrate, but they’re also in need of volunteers and you can sign up for that here!

Contact: None but please let Victor Ayeni– 678-894-5948, victor.ayeni@duke.edu know if you plan to attend so he can get a group together!

Duke Memorial Mobile Market

This opportunity courtesy of Matt Wood, husband of Jenny Van Kirk, MD. Join one of many local groups fighting food insecurity in Durham as you load and organize food for distribute to our neighbors in Durham.

Time: Saturday, June 20 from 9 a.m.-11 a.m. (but happens every third Saturday)

Location: Duke Memorial (504 W Chapel Hill St)

Sign-Up: Here (there are multiple sign-up times with various tasks to choose from!)

Contact: Matt Wood at 828-301-9703

Finally, for those who can’t make it to these events but want to help out, the group we’ve chosen to highlight for donations this month is CWS Durham. In the spirit of celebrating Durham’s rich refugee and immigrant community, CWS is a major organization in Durham for helping refugee families get resettled. The group helps incoming families with everything from finding housing to getting jobs to providing legal aid. Even more, under the “Get Involved” tab of their site, they have concrete action steps to advocate for refugee populations asynchronously, which hopefully empowers those who want to make a change but don’t know where to start.

As always, these events are either suggested or led by members of the IM residency. If you have any ideas at all about community volunteering events, or about happenings in Durham that could help others get to know the city better, reach out to victor.ayeni@duke.edu to get it added to the next email.

Way to go, Victor! Special thanks to Camille for sharing this with us. We love highlighting the excellent work being done by members of the Duke team members in support of our Durham community!

AAHFN 2025 Update

The American Association of Heart Failure Nurses annual meeting was held June 11-14 at the Westin Savannah Harbor in Savannah, Georgia.

Duke was well-represented with presentations from Stephanie Barnes, Midge Bowers, Mike Felker, Steve Greene, Rob Mentz, and Ashlee Davis, as well as a poster presentation by Johana Fajardo.

Allison Fox and Krystan Coble developed and facilitated a simulation session for physical examination of the heart failure patient. Laura Blue moderated the Mechanical Circulatory Support pre-conference.

Duke had representation from patients, as well!

Heart failure care is multidisciplinary and the role of nurses from bedside through advanced practice and nursing research was highlighted throughout the meeting.

Kudos to all!

DUHS Leadership & Campus Updates:

Duke Health Breaks Ground on Cary Expansion

Duke Health broke ground on a new facility on Thursday, June 12, that adds hospital services at its existing Duke Health Cary location, providing access to health care closer to the homes and workplaces of the community’s rapidly growing population.

The new facility will include phase one of a new inpatient hospital campus, including an emergency department, surgical services, imaging, and a small number of inpatient beds, as well as gastro-intestinal endoscopy, cancer care, and other infusion services in the same building. The building housing these services is expected to be completed in 2027.

“At Duke Health, we strive to provide hope, health, and healing by bringing high-quality care closer to where our patients live and work,” said Craig Albanese, MD, chief executive officer of Duke University Health System. “Cary, and the broader Wake County community, is one of the fastest-growing areas in North Carolina. We want to grow together by providing greater access to the world-class care Duke Health is known for.”

The new hospital services are part of a broader plan for the 85-acre campus at Duke Health Cary. The health system has already received state approval for 40 hospital beds at the location. When fully built, the Cary hospital campus is projected to employ about 1,600 people.

“In 2022, we were excited to open Duke Health Cary with several clinics including primary care, pediatric care, and urgent care,“ said Morgan Jones, chief strategy officer for Duke University Health System. “This next phase of the campus provides a convenient option for emergency and inpatient care. We envision adding more specialized services in the future to round out the needs of the local community. As a live-work-play-care campus, Duke Health Cary will provide high quality, convenient healthcare in a vibrant, mixed-use community and drive further economic development.”

For Cary residents needing hospital services and emergency care, these new services will reduce travel time, which studies show saves lives. Providing Cary residents with convenient, accessible care is aligned with Duke University Health System’s goals for our patients, including:

Improved adherence: Reduced travel time can enhance patients’ ability to adhere to treatment schedules.
Lower financial burden: Decreased travel expenses can alleviate the financial strain on patients and their families.
Enhanced quality of life: Less time spent traveling allows patients more time for rest and recovery, potentially improving overall health.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

June is Men’s Health Awareness Month and Pride Month

June 19 is Juneteenth

Cardiology Grand Rounds

June 17: Updates from HRS 2025: What does the cardiology community need to know? with Jonathan Piccini, MD. 5 p.m., DN 2002 and via Zoom.

If you missed any of our CGR’s from the past year, 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

June 18: Board Review with Paula Rambarat and Nishant Shah. Noon, Hybrid: DMP 7E39 and Zoom.

June 20: No conference

June 25: TBD.

June 27: Returning Fellows Orientation with Anna Lisa Chamis. Noon, Zoom.

Upcoming Duke Heart CMEs

The following CME activities, sponsored by Duke Heart, have been scheduled. Registration is coming soon.

October 4, 2025: Duke Cardiac Sonography Symposium (live event at Trent Semans Center)
October 31, 2025: 17th Annual NC Research Triangle Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium (live event at Durham Convention Center)

DCRI Research Forum

The Duke Clinical Research Institute will welcome Durham Mayor Leo Williams as their guest for the final DCRI Research Forum of the 2024-25 season. We hope you’ll join us for this fireside chat from Noon-1 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24.

What: DCRI Research Forum: A Fireside Chat with Durham Mayor Leo Williams

When: Noon-1 p.m., Tuesday, June 24.

Where: Zoom: https://duke.zoom.us/j/99974125544?pwd=UvTBQn3QOeF2JYXfwQJ4QmfU89XMpf.1

Webinar ID: 999 7412 5544

Duke School of Medicine Events

State of the School Address

Thursday, June 26, 12 p.m. — 12:45 p.m.; Great Hall, Trent Semans Center for Health Education

More information

Have news to share?

If you have news to share with the Pulse readership, please contact Tracey Koepke, director of communications for Duke Heart & Vascular 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 team. Please call with any questions: 919-681-2868. Feedback on Pulse is welcome and encouraged. Submissions by Noon on Wednesdays will be considered for weekend inclusion.

Duke Heart in the News:

June 1 — Harry Severance

Emergency Physicians Monthly

Add Another Year to Physician Residency Training?

June 6 — Craig Albanese

Triangle Business Journal

Battling Bed Shortage

June 6 — Duke University Hospital

HIT Consultant

Avant-garde Health Reveals the Top 13 Research Hospitals in the U.S.

June 6 — Stephen Greene

HCP Live/Podcast