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Duke Heart Pulse — August 3, 2025

By Tracey Koepke in Uncategorized on August 3, 2025

Highlights of the week:

Duke Captures NCDR Platinum Awards, 4-Star Ratings Across All Hospitals

Congratulations to our Duke Heart teams across Duke University Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, and Duke Raleigh Hospital, as well as two of our Duke Heart Network affiliate sites — Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington, NC and Frye Regional Medical Center in Hickory, NC — each of the hospitals has been recognized with a 2025 National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) Chest Pain—MI Platinum Performance Achievement Award!

The Chest Pain-MI Registry Performance Achievement Award recognizes hospitals participating in the Chest-Pain MI Registry who have demonstrated sustained, top-level performance in quality of care and adherence to guideline recommendations. Through full participation in the registry, hospitals engage in a robust quality improvement process, using data to drive improvements and positively impact patient outcomes for heart attack patients.

The Chest Pain – MI Registry has been the single most trusted source for outcomes-based, continuous quality improvement and remains the go-to registry for hospitals and health systems applying American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) clinical guideline recommendations. The NCDR, part of the American College of Cardiology’s Quality Improvement for Institutions Program, is the largest, most comprehensive, outcomes-based cardiovascular patient data repository in the U.S.

Each of our three Duke hospitals also achieved 4-star ratings – the highest available — by the NCDR CathPCI Registry and NCDR EP Device Implant Registry.

The NCDR CathPCI Registry assesses the characteristics, treatments, and outcomes of cardiac disease patients who receive diagnostic catheterization and/or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures. This registry captures the data that measure adherence to ACC/AHA clinical practice guideline recommendations, procedure performance standards, and appropriate use criteria for coronary revascularization.

The NCDR EP Device Implant Registry establishes a national standard for understanding patient characteristics, treatments, outcomes, device safety, and the overall quality of care for ICD/ CRT-D and select novel pacemaker procedures, while also delivering benchmarking data. This registry plays an important role in providing data-driven knowledge for optimizing patient care.

Congratulations to all teams – you are doing incredible work!

U.S. News Hospital Ratings Released

We are pleased to announce that Duke University Hospital is again nationally ranked in 11 adult and nine pediatric specialties in this year’s U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals report. We are also happy to see that our cardiovascular, heart and vascular surgery data places us #29 in the U.S. overall, and at #1 in NC and #1 in the Raleigh-Durham metro area.

If you happen to see one of the “Best Hospitals” guidebooks, you’ll see that each of the recipients of the NCDR Chest Pain-MI Registry Performance Achievement Award (see above story) received special recognition from the ACC. Hospitals that received a 2025 Performance Achievement Award at Platinum, Gold, and Silver levels are featured in an ACC insert.

Congratulations, team!

Marshall Named APP Lead, Ambulatory Cardiology

Congratulations to Julie Marshall, physician assistant for cardiology, who has assumed the role of APP Team Lead for ambulatory cardiology as of Friday, August 1, 2025.

Julie has consistently demonstrated exceptional dedication, skill, and leadership throughout her 25 years working at Duke Health. She joined the cardiology division in 2007, where she started on the inpatient service and then transitioned to ambulatory in 2013. We know she will excel in this new role.

Please join us in congratulating Julie on this well-deserved promotion!

Pagidipati, Shah Selected Fellows of ASPC

Congratulations to Neha Pagidipati and Nishant Shah! Both have been selected to the 2025 Class of Fellows of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology! They are two of only eight providers named this year. Being named a Fellow of the ASPC (FASPC) is recognition reserved for members who have demonstrated their commitment to cardiovascular disease prevention and the ASPC.

Way to go, Neha and Nishant!

Passing of Businessman, Philanthropist David H. Murdock

We want to recognize the passing of David H. Murdock, a visionary philanthropist and the namesake of the MURDOCK Study, who died in June at the age of 102. Murdock made a transformative $35 million gift to Duke University nearly 20 years ago which led to the creation of the Measurement to Understand Reclassification of Disease of Cabarrus and Kannapolis (MURDOCK) Study, a pioneering research initiative based in Kannapolis, N.C. The study was named in his honor by Duke cardiologist Robert Califf, MD, former principal investigator of the study and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, in recognition of Murdock’s extraordinary commitment to advancing health research.

“David Murdock was a champion of nutrition and bringing people together to promote health,” said Califf. “I’m sure he would be engaged in the current national focus on nutrition. His funding helped many researchers improve their knowledge base.”

The MURDOCK study has subsequently been led by other Duke cardiologists, including Kristin Newby, MD, and current principal investigator, Svati Shah, MD, the Ursula Geller Distinguished Professor of Research in Cardiovascular Diseases.

“Mr. Murdock touched many with his generosity in creating the North Carolina Research Campus and starting the MURDOCK Study nearly two decades ago,” said Shah. “His legacy lives on through the thousands of lives impacted by this research.”

The MURDOCK Study Community Registry and Biorepository is a longitudinal cohort of 12,526 participants from a 20-zip code region centered in Kannapolis and Cabarrus County. Participants contributed health data, biospecimens, and ongoing engagement to support research aimed at reclassifying disease and improving health outcomes.

Our condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. His obituary can be found here.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Duke Heart Fall CMEs

The Duke Cardiac Imaging Symposium is scheduled for Saturday, October 4, 2025. It will be held in the Trent Semans Center.

Our 2025 agenda features expert-led sessions on updated ASE guidelines, coronary artery disease evaluation, strain imaging in cardiomyopathies, tricuspid valve disease, cardiac POCUS, and technical skills development through hands-on breakout sessions.

To register, please visit https://events.duke.edu/DukeCIS2025.

The 17th Annual NC Research Triangle Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium will take place on Friday, October 31, 2025, at the Durham Convention Center.

Our 2025 symposium will include clinically challenging presentations, including CTD-PAH, CPPC PH, CTEPH, PH associated with ILD, COPD, portopulmonary hypertension (PoPH), and PH in end-stage renal disease. All will be addressed through interactive lectures and robust case-based discussions.

To register, please visit: https://events.duke.edu/17PH2025.

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:

July 26 — Nina Nouhravesh

Knowridge.com

Eating fortified eggs does not raise cholesterol

July 29 — Duke University Hospital

U.S. News & World Report

19 Hospitals with Top Ratings

July 29 — Duke University/Duke Health

Becker’s Hospital Review

Duke plans more layoffs after buyouts

July 29 — Duke Health/Duke University Hospital

U.S. News & World Report