Chief’s message: Spring
Spring is a time of new growth, with lots of green,trees budding and plants sprouting. The time also finds us with rejuvenation and hope with more time outdoors. This last week we had our partners from Singapore and the Heart Center join us for a vibrant visit that had lots of exchange of science, clinical care, and innovation as we work to improve heart care and envision a future of science closer to our communities. We will share some of these projects in the upcoming weeks but are encouraged by the amazing opportunities for continued long-term relationship with partners in Singapore. Stories of this visit, follow up on ACC science, and other important work in the heart center below.
Highlights of the week:
Duke Welcomes Singapore Heart Center Team
Duke Heart & Vascular hosted a dozen members of the Singapore Heart Center team on April 6 and 7th at Duke University Hospital. We have had a heart affiliation there for many years.
The Singapore team toured Duke Heart’s cardiac invasive labs (cath and EP) and the cardiology intensive care unit, and met with members of our Center of Excellence team to learn more about our registries, data collection, and performance services across the labs and structural heart.
They were also able to explore EHR go-live implementation before meeting with members of the Duke Clinical Research Institute to more broadly discuss clinical trials and multicenter collaborations.
Many thanks to all who made this visit possible, including Schuyler Jones, Rebecca Dial, Joe Kelly, Melissa Williams, Jill Engel, Manesh Patel, Svati Shah, and Adrian Hernandez, and our administrative personnel, including Cheri Barnette and Cynthia Hicks, who ensured things ran smoothly.
ACC.26 Round-up: Duke IM Resident Presentations
Several Duke internal medicine residents were invited to present posters at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions held late last month in New Orleans.
Congratulations to the following:
Alexandria Danyluk, MD — Navigating NSTEMI in the first trimester of pregnancy: FIT-guided conservative management in a low-risk patient
Best Uchehara, MD, MBA — Clinical characteristics, treatment patterns, and outcomes of patients with worsening heart failure managed with outpatient IV diuretics
Wael Hanna, MD — Fulminant dilated cardiomyopathy in PARS2 mitochondrial disease requiring VA-ECMO and heart transplant
Sarah Malik, MD — Ablation of intra-atrial reentrant tachycardia within the lateral tunnel in a patient with Fontan circulation
Zina Ibrahim, MD — Cardiac amyloidosis masquerading as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in the age of mavacamten therapy
Julia Couto, MD — Cardiogenic shock in Takayasu arteritis: the importance of evaluating for disease reactivation
Great job, everyone, and thanks to Sarah Snow for sending the photos!
Kudos to Kim Biever
We received a note of praise and gratitude this week regarding Kim Biever, a clinical research coordinator with the Duke Heart site-based research team, from Marat Fudim:
“Kim is a superstar. Kim came in on Sunday — the Easter Holiday — to consent TWO patients on the heart failure inpatient service. This enabled us to catch one patient before discharge and losing him to the study entirely (REHAB trial) and to initiate an inpatient treatment on another patient in a timely fashion (FASTER trial).
A round of applause!” — Marat Fudim, MD
“Amazing work! Thanks for all you do. We’re so grateful!” – Rob Mentz, MD
Way to go, Kim!
Shout-out to 6East
A huge shout-out to the 6 East care team! They went over a month with PERFECT hand hygiene and wearing PPE correctly. This is something that is not easily accomplished, reads the note from Jason Stokes (nurse manager, operations for the 6East cardiothoracic stepdown unit at Duke University Hospital), so I wanted to reach out and say thank you for doing the best to keep our patients and our staff safe!”
Excellent teamwork!
Ramos Tosses 1st Pitch for Duke Softball; Announces Two Special Events
Many of you are aware that our wonderful colleague, Dayana Ramos, a cardiology critical care nurse practitioner, is working to build awareness around blood cancers and raise funds for Blood Cancer United’s Visionaries of the Year campaign. Ramos is celebrating 5-years leukemia-free!
As part of her efforts, she was invited to toss out the first pitch at Duke University’s April 4 softball game versus the Virginia Cavaliers (Duke won, 8-4).
Ramos is continuing to work on her fundraising goal of $25,000 for Blood Cancer United– which will help advance lifesaving treatments and support families facing blood cancer — she is hosting a virtual raffle as well as a “Sip to Save Lives” cocktail event at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28 at The Velvet Hippo, 119 W. Orange Street, in downtown Durham. Half of the proceeds from sales of the “spicy mango margarita” will benefit Blood Cancer United.
The virtual raffle is for three prizes: a $25 Starbucks gift card; a $50 Amazon gift card, and a Grand Prize — a brewery tour and tasting at Ponysaurus Brewery in Durham. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased directly from Dayana; you can also use the QR code in the image below. Winners will be announced on May 16.
Many thanks to everyone for their support! A link to her fundraising page appears below, under “Events”.
Duke Health Lake Norman Celebrates First Anniversary
Duke Health Lake Norman Hospital marked its one-year anniversary as part of Duke Health on April 1, celebrating a year defined by partnership, unity, and shared commitment. Over the past twelve months, hospital and system teams have collaborated to advance patient care, strengthen operations, and foster a culture rooted in excellence and trust. Continued investments in technology, digital tools, and team development have supported more efficient care delivery and a better experience for both patients and staff.
Click here to watch a video recognizing the teams whose dedication made this first year a success.
Congrats and Happy Anniversary, Duke Health Lake Norman!
DUHS Updates
New Password Reset System Coming This Week
Duke is implementing CLEAR, a new identity verification service that will make Duke password resets faster and more secure. Starting April 8, instead of answering knowledge-based security questions, team members, students, and sponsored account holders will verify their identity using a quick selfie and a government-issued ID — creating a reusable digital identity for future resets.
Supporting a Safe and Respectful Work Environment
April is National Workplace Violence Prevention Month, a time to reaffirm our commitment to keeping Duke Health a safe place to work and receive care. We also want to thank the many teams who support violence prevention efforts across our facilities – your awareness, preparation, and teamwork help protect patients, visitors, and each another every day. Throughout the month, watch for communications highlighting opportunities to learn, including education and resources focused on prevention, early recognition, and safe response.
This work reflects our Put People First Culture Commitment through our shared responsibility of creating a culture of safety. Together, we can continue to build safer environments for everyone by being proactive, utilizing tools and resources, and supporting colleagues when concerns arise.
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
April is National Donate Life Month and National Arab American Heritage Month. It is also National Workplace Violence Prevention Month.
Cardiology Grand Rounds
April 14: Health System Approaches to the Control of Cardiometabolic Disease with Aarti Thakkar, MD. 5 p.m., DN 2002 and via Zoom.
April 28: The Modern Cardiac Intensivists: Who they Treat and How They Train with Michael Cosiano, MD. 5 p.m., DN 2002 and via Zoom.
CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference
April 15: DHP Case Conference with Hubert Haywood. Noon, DMP 7E39 and via Zoom.
April 17: ECG Review with Neil Freeman. Noon, Zoom only.
April 22: HF/TX Case Conference with Yoo Jin Kim. Noon, Noon, DMP 7E39 and via Zoom.
April 24: TBD. Noon, Zoom only.
April 29: EP Case Conference with Krunal Amin and Verda Arshad. Noon, DMP 7E39 and via Zoom.
MMCVI Grand Rounds
Multi-Modality Cardiovascular Imaging Grand Rounds: A multi-imaging approach to cardiovascular disease cases. Thursdays, Noon to 1 p.m., via Zoom.
April 16: CANCELLED
April 23: Cardiac Masses with Fawaz Alenezi
April 30: HOCM with Fawaz Alenezi
May 7: Imaging Approach to Congenital Heart Disease with Bharathi Upadhya
May 14: Pericardial Diseases with Fawaz Alenezi
May 21: Imaging TOF Patient with Bharathi Upadhya
May 28: HFpEF Imaging Modalities with Rebecca/Harriet
June 4: Endocarditis with Fawaz Alenezi
June 11: CT Fractional Flow Review and Akshay Pendyal
June 18: D-Trans vs L-Trans Congenital Heart Disease with Fawaz Alenezi
June 25: Systemic and Pulmonary Hypertensive Heart Disease with Fawaz Alenezi
Upcoming CME Activities:
2026 Duke Heart CMEs
The dates for the following 2026 Duke Heart symposia have been set. We will announce others as they are added.
- June 6: Duke Heart Failure Symposium — Course directors are Marat Fudim, Rob Mentz, Richa Agarwal, and Stephanie Barnes. Location: Durham Convention Center, Durham, NC.
- October 30: 18th Annual NC Research Triangle Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium – Course directors are Terry Fortin, Sudar Rajagopal, and Jimmy Ford. Location: Durham Convention Center, Durham, NC.
- September 26: Duke Case-Based Multimodality Imaging Symposium – Course directors are Sreek Vemulapalli and Anita Kelsey. Location: Trent Semans Center, Great Hall.
Please save the dates!
NC Walk for Victory — Support our Aortic team!
Duke Heart & Vascular is proud to again serve as the presenting sponsor of the NC Walk for Victory being held in Raleigh on Saturday, April 25. Dr. Chad Hughes is again serving as medical director for the walk and he does a fantastic job!
This event unites our regional Marfan/LDS/VEDS community in support of patients and families affected by genetic aortic and vascular conditions. It’s a wonderful event that has grown larger each year. We love seeing our patients and their families join in all the fun — and we’d love to see you there as well!
Please join us from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 25 at Laurel Hills Community Center in Laurel Hills Park located at 3808 Edwards Mill Rd, Raleigh, NC 27612. This is an easy to find location with ample and free parking.
Please join our team and donate to this cause if you are able, and forward this message to anyone who may be interested in joining! Together, we walk for awareness. Together, we Walk for Victory.
Thank you!
Support Ramos & Visionaries of the Year Campaign
Please consider supporting our amazing team member, Dayana Ramos, DNP, a critical care nurse practitioner in cardiology (and cancer survivor) during this year’s Visionaries of the Year campaign with Blood Cancer United.
“I’m currently raising funds for this year’s Visionaries of the Year campaign with Blood Cancer United (formerly the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) as part of Team Don’t Give Up!” said Ramos. “This cause is incredibly personal to me, as a leukemia survivor who recently celebrated five years cancer-free, I know firsthand how critical research funding and patient support truly are.”
The 10-week fundraising competition kicks off on March 9, and her goal is to raise $25,000 to help advance lifesaving treatments and support families facing blood cancer.
Please support Dayana in any way you can, even if only with words of encouragement! Her fundraising page for Blood Cancer United can be found here.
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 me with any questions: 919-681-2868. Feedback on Pulse is welcome and encouraged. Submissions by Noon on Wednesdays will be considered for weekend inclusion.
