Chief’s message: New Year – Full Steam Ahead
Hope you all are having a fun weekend – able to see some of the world cup, spend time with family and friends, and potentially spend time outdoors if the heat is not too bad. We are in full transition mode to the new academic year. We had the CT Surgery finishing dinner this weekend led by Carmelo Milano – recognizing the great residents/fellows and faculty that help train our cardiothoracic surgeons. I have had the privilege of being on Acute MI call some this weekend with our new interventional fellow, and the teams on the wards, ICU, and procedure spaces are working hard and very coordinated to ensure our patients get the care they need. Please see the stories below as you will see hopefully the continual organization and growth of Duke Heart – with two new sections (Prevention and Congenital and Structural Heart disease), a new recruit for our Anesthesiology/Critical Care group, Heart Failure research and practice improvement with meeting presentations, DukeHeart365 and the innovation jam presentation and future access models, and leading the US in a site based enrollment for a clinical trial. New academic year – but the same mission to improve the CV health of our region, country, and beyond.
Highlights of the week:
The Division of Cardiology continues to adapt its organizational structure to support Duke Heart & Vascular’s growing clinical, research, and educational mission. This week, we are pleased to announce two new sections—and the leaders who will guide them into the future.
Duke Cardiology Names Pagidipati First Chief of New Prevention Section
As the way we approach and treat cardiovascular disease continues to evolve, so does the way Duke Cardiology is organized to meet patients’ needs.
This summer, Duke Cardiology will establish a Prevention Section and name Neha Pagidipati, MD, MPH, as its inaugural section chief, giving cardiovascular prevention a formal leadership presence within the division. The move reflects both the growing importance of preventing heart disease before it develops or progresses and Duke’s longstanding leadership in the field. It will also help guide future investments in patient care, research, education, and community health.
While creating the section is an organizational milestone, prevention itself is not new at Duke. The Division of Cardiology has built one of the nation’s longest running cardiometabolic prevention programs, caring for patients while advancing research and innovative approaches to reducing cardiovascular risk.
Duke’s leadership in cardiovascular prevention spans decades—from Fred Cobb‘s pioneering work in preventive cardiology to Bill Kraus‘s landmark STRRIDE trials, which helped define the role of exercise in reducing cardiovascular risk. That legacy has continued through Duke’s multidisciplinary cardiometabolic prevention clinic.
“Our cardiometabolic prevention clinic has been in place for many years—longer than most other cardiometabolic clinics in the country,” Pagidipati said. “What we haven’t had is a formal seat at the table when it comes to thinking about hiring, advocating for prevention efforts and guiding those future investments.”
For Pagidipati, establishing the section is an opportunity to build on that strong foundation while creating something that will benefit Duke for decades to come.
“Our goal is to create a home for prevention that is sustainable with a lasting legacy at Duke, a legacy that will be measured by the impact on our patients and the science,” she said. “Formally creating the section now gives us a stronger foundation to continue expanding our prevention efforts well into the future.”
The section will unite Duke’s prevention efforts under a shared vision, strengthening collaboration across clinical care, research, education, and population health. It will also help expand patient access to prevention services, grow Duke’s research footprint, and develop the next generation of prevention specialists.
“Many other academic medical centers already have formal prevention sections,” Pagidipati said. “Having one at Duke will allow us to attract and retain top faculty and trainees while helping shape how cardiology contributes to broader prevention efforts across the health system.”
As the section begins its work, it represents an investment not only in today’s patients, but in the future of cardiovascular medicine at Duke—strengthening the division’s ability to prevent heart disease through innovation, collaboration, and leadership.
Congratulations to Neha and to the entire preventive cardiology team!
New Congenital and Structural Heart Section Joins Growing Areas of Heart Care
The Division of Cardiology is also launching a new Congenital and Structural Heart Disease Section, bringing together Duke Heart’s adult congenital and structural heart programs under a single organizational umbrella.
Cary Ward, MD, will serve as the inaugural section chief. The new section reflects the continued growth of adult congenital and structural heart care at Duke.
“These are two of the major growing areas in cardiology right now,” Ward said. “Bringing them together under one section will allow us to focus on that growth while supporting the outstanding people already doing this work.”
Ward emphasized that combining the programs will help the teams work more closely together, share expertise across disciplines, and advocate more effectively for the resources needed to expand clinical care and research. She also believes the new structure will foster innovation as physicians build on one another’s experience and clinical advances.
For the past decade, Ward has been dedicated to faculty development within the Duke University School of Medicine, supporting physicians in building meaningful and successful careers while fostering high-performing, collaborative teams. She plans to bring that same leadership approach to her new role.
“My hope is to remove barriers so that the team can focus on doing their best work,” Ward said. “We have a tremendous group of faculty; it will be a privilege to support them as they continue advancing patient care, research and education.”
Ward began serving in the role this month as the Division of Cardiology continues to evolve its organizational structure to support Duke Heart’s growing clinical and research programs.
Congratulations, Cary! And congratulations to our ACHD and Structural Heart teams!
Bronshteyn Joins Duke Heart & Vascular CTICU Team
The Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit (CTICU) will welcome a new faculty member later this month as Yuriy Bronshteyn, MD, joins the Duke Heart & Vascular team. 
Bronshteyn earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt University before completing an anesthesiology residency and critical care medicine fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. He joined Duke Anesthesiology in 2015 and has since cared for critically ill patients in both the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and the Durham VA Intensive Care Unit.
An associate professor in the Duke University School of Medicine, Bronshteyn is internationally recognized for his expertise in diagnostic point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). He is board-certified in critical care and transesophageal echocardiography, has authored more than 60 publications, and has served in national educational leadership roles advancing the use of POCUS in critical care.
“I am delighted to introduce Yuriy Bronshteyn, MD, to our CTICU team and broader Duke Cardiothoracic family,” said Mihai Podgoreanu, MD, associate professor of anesthesiology at Duke and chief, Division of Cardiac Anesthesiology.
Bronshteyn will begin rounding in the CTICU later this month. Please join us in welcoming him to the team.
Duke Heart Well Represented at National Heart Failure Meeting
Duke Health was well represented at the 2026 American Association of Heart Failure Nurses (AAHFN) Annual Meeting, held June 24–26 in San Diego.
Several Duke Heart team members served as invited faculty and presenters, reflecting the innovation and leadership across our heart failure program. Krystan Coble, DNP; Anna Mall, DNP; Stephanie Barnes, DNP; Steve Greene, MD; and Rob Mentz, MD, served as conference faculty and speakers, sharing their insights with colleagues from across the country.
In addition, Allison Fox and Katherine Adams presented Mobilizing HF Care: The Impact of Leader-Led Mobility Rounds. Their work received the conference’s Quality Improvement Award, which is featured in a separate story in this issue of the Pulse.
Fox also received the Robin J. Trupp Scholarship, an annual AAHFN award that supports nurses pursuing undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral education with a focus on advancing heart failure care.
Thank you to each of you for representing Duke Heart & Vascular so well and for sharing your work with colleagues from across the country. Great job!
Duke Heart 365 Earns Duke Health Innovation Accelerator Award
For patients facing a heart condition, timely access to expert cardiovascular care can make all the difference. But navigating specialty care can be complicated, and long waits for appointments often add anxiety to an already stressful time.
A Duke Heart team is working to reimagine that experience.
Their vision—Duke Heart 365—has earned the team a Duke Health Innovation Accelerator Award, recognizing its potential to transform how patients connect with Duke’s cardiovascular specialists.
The awards were presented during Duke Health’s inaugural Innovation Accelerator event on June 29, 2026, at the Trent Semans Center. Duke Heart 365 was one of four projects selected from 12 finalists after a competitive process involving 50 proposals from across the Duke University Health System. The program will provide winning teams with funding and implementation support to help move promising ideas from concept to practice.
“Duke Heart 365 is about creating a more seamless way for patients to engage with Duke Heart for their care,” said Nick Nguyen, MHA, director, finance and administration, for the Division of Cardiology and Duke Heart Center. “Patients want to come to a trusted source like an academic medical center, but they also want that experience to be as frictionless as possible.”
The initiative is designed to help patients quickly connect with a Duke cardiology expert, develop an individualized care plan, and begin the appropriate next steps as quickly as possible. Over time, the platform could bring together virtual care, digital tools, and emerging technologies to extend Duke Heart’s expertise to more patients and communities.
As envisioned, Duke Heart 365 seeks to bring Duke Heart expertise to every community, helping ensure that where a patient resides does not limit access to the specialized cardiovascular care they need nor limit their opportunity for good health outcomes.
“The future of cardiovascular care will not be defined by where care is delivered—it will be defined by how effectively we connect patients with the expertise they need,” said Manesh Patel, MD, Richard Sean Stack, MD, Distinguished Professor at Duke and vice president of Duke’s Heart & Vascular service line. “Duke Heart 365 reflects our commitment to reimagining that connection, expanding access to Duke Heart’s clinical excellence and building a model of care that will better serve patients and communities for years to come.”
The Duke Heart 365 team includes Patel and Nguyen; Camille Frazier-Mills, MD; Sreekanth Vemulapalli, MD; Chet Patel, MD; Jonathan Piccini, MD; Schuyler Jones, MD; Matt Fitzsimmons; and Jill Engel.
Congratulations to all!
A Simple Question Leads to Better Patient Care—and National Recognition
When Katherine Adams and Allison Fox looked at why patients on one Duke Heart Center step-down unit weren’t consistently meeting their mobility goals, they didn’t begin by asking what bedside staff were doing wrong.
Instead, they asked a different question: What could nurse leaders do differently to help?
That simple shift in perspective became the foundation of a quality improvement initiative that recently earned Adams, nurse manager, operations, for Duke Hospital 7700, and Fox, clinical nurse specialist for our Heart step-down units, the CDU, and CMRI, the Quality Improvement Podium Presentation Award at the 2026 annual meeting of the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses (AAHFN). Their presentation showcased a leader-led mobility rounding program that has improved patient outcomes by strengthening collaboration among nurse leaders, frontline staff, and patients.
The initiative began in 2024 after the team recognized that many patients were not achieving their prescribed mobility goals. Adams and Fox created weekly leader-led mobility rounds that included reviewing patient charts, talking with nurses and nursing assistants about successes and barriers, and meeting directly with patients to better understand their experiences.
Just as important as the process itself was the culture Adams and Fox wanted to create. Every conversation was designed to foster trust, encourage honest dialogue and better understand the challenges staff faced in helping patients meet their mobility goals.
“I want to make sure there’s a presence of psychological safety in every conversation a staff member has with me,” Adams said. “They should feel safe talking to me.”
That approach created opportunities not only to solve problems, but also to learn from frontline staff and work together to remove barriers that kept patients from staying active during their hospital stay.
The impact was measurable. Compliance with patient mobility goals increased from 49% to 80% among patients included in the intervention. Falls with injury declined, rehabilitation discharges decreased, and average length of stay improved.
Although the national award recognizes Adams and Fox, Adams is quick to credit the entire care team.
“This is really a reflection of our entire unit,” she said. “This is about our nurses, our nursing assistants, and everyone who helped make these outcomes possible.”
The leader-led mobility rounding model has since expanded to additional Heart Center step-down units, demonstrating how curiosity, collaboration, and supportive leadership can improve patient care while empowering the teams who care for them.
The award recognizes an innovative approach to improving patient mobility, but Adams hopes its broader lesson will resonate with leaders across Duke Health: sometimes the most meaningful improvements begin with a simple question—and a willingness to listen to the people closest to the work.
“If you’re seeing something that isn’t where it needs to be, leader-led rounding is an excellent way to tackle it,” she said. “We learn from our staff every time we do these rounds.”
Way to go, Katherine and Allison!
Kudos to Chelsey Weinbrecht!
Chelsey Weinbrecht is receiving well-deserved recognition for the outstanding support she provides to Duke’s Internal Medicine residents and new team members. We received a note this week from Diane Sauro, MSN, director, Advanced Practice, Duke Heart, sharing a note sent to her by Jenny Van Kirk, associate program director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program:
“I wanted to share that I was in the workroom when Chelsey Weinbrecht gave handoff to one of the interns, and it was FANTASTIC! I was really impressed by her patience, kindness, thorough details, excellent anticipatory guidance, and willingness to teach. In her anticipatory guidance, there was information about not giving amiodarone to someone listed for transplant and about not giving blood to someone listed for transplant (unless symptomatic). The intern asked about this, and she taught graciously. This really struck me as a model that hopefully others could follow!” — Jenny Van Kirk
“Chelsey, Great work, and thank you for being such a team player. We truly appreciate your willingness to support the education and development of our new interns. Collaborating with the multidisciplinary team is an important part of what we do, and your efforts exemplify the teamwork and commitment that contribute to a positive learning environment and excellent patient care. Thank you for your dedication and for going above and beyond. We appreciate all that you do.” — Diane Sauro
“Supporting new interns and team members is central to our mission,” added Jill Engel, DNP, service line vice president for Heart & Vascular. “Thank you for being a mentor and leader on the Heart Team.”
Congratulations, Chelsey, and thank you for going above and beyond to support your colleagues and our patients!
Shout-Out to Wang and Zakharova!
Congratulations to cardiologist Andrew Wang, MD, site principal investigator, and Oksana Zakharova, lead clinical research coordinator, for leading this week’s U.S. enrollment in the SONATA-HCM clinical trial. As the study enters its final phase of enrollment, Duke was recognized as the highest-enrolling U.S. site in this week’s sponsor update—a testament to the team’s dedication to advancing research for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Krista Camuglia, research practice manager for the Duke Heart Center Clinical Research Unit, recognized the team’s outstanding achievement and thanked Wang and Zakharova for their leadership and commitment to the study.
Wang also praised Zakharova’s exceptional contributions, writing, “We are the leading U.S. enrolling site—quite an achievement and a credit to your diligent screening and contacts with patients. In truth, your name should be listed in place of mine!”
Congratulations, Andrew, Oksana, and the entire study team on this outstanding accomplishment!
Upcoming CME Events & Opportunities
Cardiology Grand Rounds
CGRs have concluded for the summer. We will return in the fall! Meanwhile, please enjoy past recordings.
All Duke CGR Recordings (except for those containing PHI) can be found on Duke Warpwire by year: 2026, 2025, 2024. Questions about recordings? Contact Tracey Koepke.
2026 Symposia
The dates for the following 2026 Duke Heart symposia have been set. We will announce others as they are added.
- September 26: Duke Case-Based Multimodality Imaging Symposium – Registration is now open. Course directors are Sreekanth Vemulapalli and Anita Kelsey. Location: Trent Semans Center, Great Hall.
- October 30: 18th Annual NC Research Triangle Pulmonary Vascular Symposium – Course directors are Terry Fortin, Sudar Rajagopal, and Jimmy Ford. Location: Durham Convention Center, Durham, NC.
Please save the dates!
Hitting with Heart Softball Tournament
The 10th Annual Hitting with Heart Softball tournament will be held on Saturday, August 22 at Valley Springs Park, 3805 Valley Springs Road, in Durham. The tournament raises funds that will, in part, support the American Heart Association’s 2026 Triangle Heart Walk.
Triangle Heart Walk Date Announced
The American Heart Association’s 2026 Triangle Heart Walk will take place on Saturday, October 3, 2026, at Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, 3801 Rock Quarry Road, Raleigh. The Walk is expected to start around 9:30 a.m., but that may change. Stay tuned for a more formal announcement from the AHA. Meanwhile, registration for team captains and walkers is open!
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.
