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Duke Heart Pulse – October 23 2022: Highlights and Updates

October 23, 2022 / Leave a comment

Chief’s message:

It is a busy time of year for all of our teams at Duke Heart. This week there are faculty and fellows working on Capital Hill to discuss the importance of supporting Heart Health. One of our fellows NKiru Osude was a member of the American College of Cardiology group (representing North Carolina) who met with members of congress to discuss the impact of health care disparities, access to care, and the importance of covering services and care for people with heart disease or people as risk for heart disease. She is seen here taking a selfie with the whole group.

As you will see in the stories below, members of Duke Heart continue to work hard to perform research to identify ways to have our community and patients have health, from first responders in cardiac arrest research, the genetics of cardiac arrest, helping with a national cardiogenic shock registry, to studying treatments for COVID, and holding symposiums on pulmonary hypertension. The research and clinical care work at Duke Heart remain vibrant.

This time of year also has our community in full swing for a variety of fall celebrations and traditions. Halloween for the kids will be next week, we had the NC state fair this week (you can see – still some work to be done for our community’s food choices), and the upcoming American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in early November where we will have several scientific presentations from Faculty and Fellows.

For some of us this weekend also was important as the start of the celebration of Diwali. Diwali is traditionally held on the darkest night of the new moon in Autumn, and celebrates the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, hope over despair. In many homes it is marked by cleaning and setting up decorations, symbols, and of course many lights. Kids and families celebrate with songs, dances, and all sorts of treats. My daughter was able to perform in a traditional dance at the local temple, and we were fortunate enough to have her grandparents present. After several years of challenges to our communities, health care systems, and scientific communities, we hope whether you celebrate Diwali or not, you have some time over the fall to spend with family and loved ones. You will see in this version of the Pulse there is much to be thankful for, and many who are working to spread light, knowledge, and health in our Duke Heart Community.

Highlights of the week:

Duke Heart Teams with NC First Responders on Cardiac Arrest Trial

Duke Heart researchers are teaming up with North Carolina emergency care personnel—EMS, fire, police, 911 dispatch and community members—across the state in a pragmatic cluster-randomized trial that will test community interventions to improve survival for out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), a leading cause of death in the U.S.

There are more than 400,000 out of hospital cardiac arrests a year in the U.S. with a survival rate of less than 10%. Despite 30 years of efforts by health care professionals, there is scant evidence that cardiac arrest survival odds have substantially improved. Duke researchers are focused on changing that.

The RAndomized Cluster Evaluation of Cardiac ARrest Systems (RACE-CARS) trial covers a geographic area of 62 counties involving eight million residents and expects to enroll 20,000 cardiac arrest patients over a four-year period. It is one of the first U.S. registry-based trials, such that all eligible patients are included and data are efficiently collected in routine care, an approach that has been used with great success in large, efficient clinical trials in Europe. The trial is being conducted by Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) with a $15 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“We’ve leveraged a highly efficient clinical trial design methodology to be able to address a major public health concern in an ambitious project to test community interventions to improve survival from cardiac arrest,” says the trial’s principal investigator, Christopher Granger, MD, professor of medicine in cardiology and director of the Cardiac Care Unit at Duke. “If we’re successful, this will provide compelling evidence to guide how care is provided around the country and around the world to improve survival from cardiac arrest.”

For the trial, 62 counties were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. Interventions are focused on community CPR and AED treatment, 911 dispatch performance, and first responder treatment for OHCA. The goal is to have more patients with cardiac arrest treated with bystander CPR and early defibrillation. Intervention counties are working closely with the trial team to carry out and evaluate trial interventions while the control groups will continue to provide their usual care.

The data collection phase began in July for the trial, which runs from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2027, and uses the pre-existing Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) registry for patient enrollment, a platform previously implemented in North Carolina by the RACE CARS team. CARES collects data from 911 dispatch centers, EMS agencies, and hospitals and links that information in a single record.

In laying the trial groundwork, researchers in the last two years have surveyed current practices at the counties, reviewed care metrics in each county, created site actions plans and held in-person site visits to provide improved outcome guidance, focusing on activities that will shorten the treatment time to CPR and defibrillation during the first 10 minutes of the cardiac arrest. Each county randomized to the intervention strategy has worked with RACE-CARS investigators to develop a customized intervention strategy that is tailored to each individual agency’s unique needs and resources, and customized training plans for each level of the prehospital chain of survival. (Story continues here)

In addition to Granger, the RACE-CARS team includes Dan Mark, Lisa Monk, Monique Starks, Sana Al-Khatib, Hayden Bosworth, Hussein Al-Khalidi, Kimberly Ward, Steve Vendeventer and James Jollis. Congratulations to all on this important work!

Determining Genetic Causes for Sudden Cardiac Death

People commonly associate heart attacks with clogged arteries, fatty diets, high cholesterol, and plaque buildup in the heart. And while all those things can cause sudden cardiac death, they are not the only culprit; gene mutations can also be to blame.

Certain genetic variants can cause irregular heart rhythms, called arrhythmias, and can affect how well the heart is able to pump

blood to the rest of the body. Otherwise healthy individuals with these genetic variants can fall victim to arrhythmias that are often fatal.

Duke researchers investigated 55 genes responsible for various arrhythmia-related disorders to understand how common these

variants are and the risks they pose. Results were published in Circulation: Genomics and Precision Medicine on September 22.

The team, led by Svati Shah, MD, professor of medicine in cardiology, integrated electronic health records with whole exome sequencing data collected from 8,574 people in the Catheterization Genetics (CATHGEN) cohort, a group that had undergone cardiac catheterization at Duke University Medical Center from 2001 through 2011.

“We took an in-depth look at the entire diagnostic spectrum, from electrocardiograms to cardiac MRIs, as well as medical charts for history of syncope, arrhythmias, and all the other ways these types of conditions could manifest,” said Navid Nafissi, MD, lead author and a Duke cardiac electrophysiology fellow.

The researchers wanted to know whether patients’ symptoms met diagnostic criteria for these conditions and if there was any evidence of sub-diagnoses that might have been missed because they did not meet full diagnostic criteria.

One in 108 people in this cohort carried a pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant in arrhythmia-related genes, which means these variants may be more common in the general population than researchers initially thought.

How severe the genetic variants are, though, varies greatly. The likelihood that a particular variant might cause health problems can range from zero to as high as 83%. Issues might include dilated cardiomyopathy, which causes the heart’s ventricles to thin, stretch out, and grow larger; or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which causes the heart muscle to gather scar tissue and thicken. Both these disorders make it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body. Variants can also cause disorders like long QT syndrome and Brugada syndrome that cause fast, chaotic heartbeats. All of these disorders can lead to sudden death in otherwise healthy people.

“These are people who just die suddenly — without any warning signs,” Nafissi said. “Sometimes there’s no clear manifestations of cardiac disease, even in autopsy.” The heart might look completely healthy: no cholesterol build up, and sometimes no signs of scar tissue from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or thinning ventricles from dilated cardiomyopathy.

When there is no clear reason as to why a person had a sudden cardiac death, genetic testing can help determine what happened. “Sometimes you can find a causative genetic variant in these cases,” Nafissi said, “which can allow for tailored management and cascade screening of family members.”

Current standards of care still take a reactive approach to this problem. If someone goes into sudden cardiac arrest, health care and emergency workers address the crisis and try to save the patient — but what if there was a better, more proactive approach?

Nafissi hopes this research takes researchers one step closer to utilizing genetic testing earlier to identify those who have genetic variants that could put them at increased risk of sudden cardiac arrest. But, Nafissi clarifies, “Not everyone who carries a variant will go on to have a cardiac event.”

The trick will be identifying those at highest risk and determining the appropriate preventive interventions, such as an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator or something less invasive, like lifestyle modifications or medications. “There are multiple ways that this research could lead to saving lives,” Nafissi said.

Duke Team to help Co-Lead Newly Established Cardiogenic Shock Registry

The American Heart Association (AHA) has established the world’s first professional society shock registry as part of the Get With The Guidelines registries network. Mitch Krucoff, MD, professor of medicine in cardiology at Duke will serve as co-chair of the registry along with Dr. David Morrow, director of the Levine Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard.

The creation of this new registry is the direct result of work done by the Cardiac Safety Research Consortium Think Tank on cardiogenic shock, according to Krucoff.

Cardiogenic shock—a life threatening condition when a person’s heart can’t pump enough blood to meet the needs of the body—is most often caused by serious heart attack or advanced heart failure. Historically, data related to cardiogenic shock have been limited, inconsistent and challenging to interpret. As a result, varying treatment recommendations exist around best practices.

The new registry will help researchers, clinicians and regulators to better understand the clinical symptoms of shock types, treatment patterns and outcomes. The registry will provide a foundation for working toward improving the quality and consistency of care in patients in U.S. hospitals with cardiogenic shock symptoms. This effort has had many of our current and past Duke Faculty and fellows involved including Mark Samsky, Magnus Ohman, Joseph Rogers, and Sunil Rao.

“To understand how to improve care for cardiogenic shock patients, we first need a clearer view of the landscape of existing treatment practices for cardiogenic shock in U.S.-based acute care settings,” said Krucoff. “No organization is better positioned to advance this critical public health question than the AHA, with already established networks of sites entering data on heart failure, acute cardiac syndromes, cardiac arrest and COVID—all of which involve patients at risk of progressing to cardiogenic shock.”

The Cardiogenic Shock Registry builds on more than 20 years of quality improvement and registry experience rooted in the AHA’s Get With The Guidelines platform. Data from the registry will help inform the larger medical community on how best to treat cardiogenic shock.

“The new Cardiogenic Shock Registry will leverage the unparalleled reach of the AHA in a unique collaboration between academic clinicians and researchers, federal agencies and funding supporters’ experts to provide high-quality evidence and promote best practices for the treatment of patients with cardiogenic shock,” said Morrow.

Krucoff and Morrow both serve as volunteer experts for the AHA. The AHA’s Precision Medicine Platform, a secure cloud-computing platform, will be used to facilitate the research.

ICYMI: Boulware Named Dean of WFU School of Medicine

Ebony Boulware, MD, MPH, Director of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), Vice Dean for Translational Science in the School of Medicine, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Translational Research at Duke University, has accepted the role of Dean of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She will begin her new role in January 2023. Dr. Boulware will also serve as the Vice Chief Academic Officer and Chief Science Officer at Atrium Health. She will step down from her positions at Duke on December 31, 2022, as she makes her transition to this exciting leadership opportunity.

The announcement was made on Monday by Kathleen Cooney, MD, chair of the Duke Department of Medicine and Mary E. Klotman, MD, Dean, Duke University School of Medicine.

Boulware, the Nanaline H. Duke University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine, joined the Duke faculty in 2013 as Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine and has served as Director of CTSI and Vice Dean for Translational Science since 2016. She has spent most of her academic career investigating how to improve health care and health outcomes for individuals and populations with chronic kidney disease, hypertension, and other chronic diseases, particularly focusing on minoritized populations. In her roles at Duke, she has been instrumental in accelerating the translation of research to clinical care, and she is a national leader in addressing the causes and effects of racial and ethnic health and health care inequities.

The SOM and DOM will work with the Division of General Internal Medicine to create a transitional leadership plan as they prepare to launch a national search for a new Division Chief.

“Dr. Boulware has been a dedicated and innovative leader, and we want to thank her for her service and commitment to the School of Medicine,” said Cooney and Klotman in their statement. “She made significant contributions to the Department of Medicine in her role as Division Chief and generously mentored many faculty members within and outside of the Division. Her passion for addressing health inequities and improving our approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion has profoundly strengthened our department. We know you will join us in congratulating Dr. Boulware.”

Personally, Ebony has been a leader across so many areas a Duke – she will be missed. We are excited for her and will look forward to continuing to collaborate on making NC a healthier state! Congratulations – Ebony!

Nicholls, Chen Join Duke Heart APP Team

Please join us in welcoming two new APPs to our Duke Heart team!

First, we are welcoming Stephanie Nicholls, a nurse practitioner, back to our team. She will be working at South Durham Clinic with Michael Blazing, and at Duke Cardiology Arringdon. Nicholls is originally from a small town in Maine and moved to NC in 2013 to work at Duke. She was initially in the CTICU and then went on to serve as a heart transplant coordinator. She met her husband at Duke and they now have two children — Emma, 3, and Luke, 1. She lives in Durham and can typically be found chasing children around The Museum of Life and Science. She enjoys the great restaurant scene in Durham and going to the beach. She has always enjoyed being a part of the vibrant Duke community and is excited to join her new team.

Karina Chen, a physician assistant, will be at Duke Cardiology Arringdon working with Cary Ward and the DHP group. Chen grew up in southeastern Michigan and attended Fordham University for her bachelor’s degree in biology. She spent some time working as an EMT and CNA before moving to Boston for PA school at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science. After graduating, she worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Pulmonary Vascular Medicine with a focus on caring for patients with pulmonary hypertension. She and her husband moved to NC in order to escape the freezing Boston winters, as well as to be closer to her parents who are now living in SC. They are enjoying trying new restaurants in the Triangle area and exploring hiking trails with their corgi, Gimli. She is excited to join the Duke Heart team.

Please welcome Stephanie and Karina to our team!

Shout-out to CT OR Team

Our cardiothoracic team managed a particularly difficult surgical case on Wednesday — a big shout-out to our incredible and dedicated multidisciplinary team! Together, they rallied, showed incredible teamwork, and the patient is doing well.

“I especially want to express my gratitude for Reeni, who scrubbed in and stayed way late to see this through to completion.” – Jacob Schroder

Congrats to all. Well done!

Duke Heart Construction Update

Construction on Cardiac Catheterization Lab 1 is due for completion by Nov. 7 with inspections taking place Nov. 7-11. The team plans to conduct their first case in Cath 1 on the afternoon of Nov. 14. A team from Philips will be present for support as well as training from Nov. 14-17. If you have any questions please contact Elizabeth Watts.

Arges Focused on Raising Vital Funds for MSA

Many of you know that Kristine Arges, RN, BSN, CCRC, left Duke Heart earlier this year after 31 years on the team. Arges is on disability leave after receiving a diagnosis of Multiple Systems Atrophy-Cerebellar (MSA), a rare, incurable neurodegenerative disease that can rapidly progress.

Due to elusive symptoms that appeared over time and seemed unrelated to each other, she went several years before being diagnosed. The disease has progressed fast, and she is now walker- and wheelchair-dependent. After her diagnosis, she began reading up on MSA and says she was shocked to find there are few treatment options and little research being done. She reached out to Mayo Clinic after learning about the work of Dr. Wolfgang Singer, an associate professor of neurology who has completed phase-one research showing that disease progression of MSA could be slowed through the infusion of autologous mesenchymal stem cells. The research looks promising. Arges qualified for the study and enrolled; she is three months in and has completed two infusions of either stem cells or placebo, 2:1.

Having grown up in Manhattan, she earned her BSN at Columbia School of Nursing and quickly found work in a neuro-surgical stepdown at Columbia-Presbyterian. Two years later, she was ready to leave New York City behind her and chose Durham, NC as her next home.

Arges applied at Duke Hospital where there was a need for nurses on 3200; she started on the unit in 1991. Once she made the switch to cardiology care she never looked back. Arges says she developed her sea legs in the ACU and then joined the heart failure research group under Chris O’Connor, MD. There, she eventually coordinated the PRAISE 1 & 2 studies, noting that O’Connor always inspired a healthy sense of competition – and that he and she, ‘Chris and Kris,’ were always vying to be the top enrollers. Kris went on to coordinate many trials in the HF group such as BEST, OPTIME, and CHARM to name just a few.

Pictured here with longtime friend Stephanie Kerr, RN, MSN, at a party celebrating the successful conclusion of the PRAISE 1 trial.

She joined Duke’s Cardiac Diagnostic Unit in 2003 and conducted imaging trials with many of ‘the greats’ in Duke Cardiology, including Jamie Jollis, Joe Kisslo, Zainab Samad, Jerry Bloomfield, Pam Douglas, Eric Velazquez, Michel Khouri, Sreek Vemulapalli and, of course, Fawaz Alenezi. Kris became a “lifer” in the CDU and spent the remainder of her career there. She wore many hats in the CDU – as a stress-nurse one day per week, and as an intermediary for study coordinators in various disciplines who needed tests done on their research patients.

In the “old days,” she says, there wasn’t a system in place to help sonographers know which images to acquire. With the trend in clinical trials to monitor cardiac safety, more and more studies required echocardiograms on study patients. In addition to organizing a system of imaging instructions for what came to be more than 100 research clinical trials, she coordinated contrast perfusion studies in ultrasound; helped manage core lab work at the Duke Clinical Research Institute; and in the lab, she coordinated amyloid studies – including the ATTRACT trial (which became Tafamidis), served as the REMIT nurse working with Wei Jiang, MD for several years, and coordinated a number of studies with the Biomedical Engineering group.

In her last ten years at Duke, she served as lead CRC of Cardiac Imaging. She shared this role with Michele Parker in MRI. Kris’s research group was multi-disciplinary — a microcosm of life in the CDU– consisting of exercise physiologists, sonographers, nurses, clerical assistants, and students.

“Perhaps the thing I loved most about my job was the ever-present variety of people, patients, and disciplines,” said Arges. “Never was there ever a dull moment. The CDU was the place to be.”

Arges and others are working to raise funds to ensure that all 70 patients currently enrolled in the clinical trial can receive compassionate use of stem cells upon completion of Phase 2. All patients involved “have everything to lose if funds are not raised to buy them time until a new treatment or cure is found,” Arges says.

Saddened to have left her role at Duke, Arges is resolved to keep fighting as long as she can. She thinks fondly of her time at Duke Heart, misses her former co-workers, and wishes all of us a belated and fond farewell.

Arges is open about her life with MSA and wants to raise awareness of this poorly recognized disease. She has created a ‘legacy page’ which lives on the Defeat MSA Alliance website where you can learn more about MSA as well as donate. Kris says that she would be honored if you considered supporting her and others with this condition.

Kris is shown here with members of her Duke research group. L-R are: Alicia Armour, Melissa LeFevre, Arges, Jennifer Tomfohr and Danielle Wilson).

You are missed, Kris!

Early Voting in NC, on Duke Campus: 2022 Election

The one-stop early voting period in North Carolina opened on Thursday, Oct. 20, and runs through Saturday, Nov. 5. During early voting, voters may cast a ballot at any early voting site in their county and would-be voters may same-day register and vote. Durham residents have the opportunity to vote at Duke University’s early voting site on campus in Karsh Alumni Center (2080 Duke University Rd, Durham, NC 27708). Multiple early voting sites are available in Durham, Wake, Orange, Person, and Alamance counties. Early voting locations in each county can be found on the NC State Board of Elections website.

Voters who choose to vote by mail may request an absentee ballot until Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. All absentee ballots must be postmarked by 5 p.m. on Election Day and received by Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. Voters who have already requested an absentee ballot may drop it off at any early voting site in-person, either for themselves or a close relative. Absentee ballots may also be returned to the local board of elections office or a designated drop-off site by 5 p.m. on Election Day. Voters can make sure their absentee ballot was received by using Ballottrax, an absentee ballot tracking site operated by the State Board of Elections.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8 and a list of polling locations can be found here. Visit the State Board of Elections website or vote.duke.edu for additional information.

Additional Reminders:

October 23-29 is Respiratory Care Week. Please send some love their way this week!

DukeALERT testing was performed this week. Please make sure you’re familiar with the several ways in which you would be informed in the event of an emergency. You can find great information on the Duke Emergency Management Website as well as the DUHS Preparedness and Response Center.
October is Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month – thank a sonographer!
Open Enrollment is now open through Oct. 28. This is your opportunity to review your medical, dental, vision, and reimbursement account benefit elections and make any changes necessary to ensure your choices continue to meet your needs. You should have received a copy of the annual Open Enrollment Guide in the mail from Duke HR.
The DUHS annual flu vaccination campaign is underway. The deadline for staff vaccinations is Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 10 a.m. Vaccination sites for faculty and staff can be found here: https://flu.duke.edu/vaccination/employees/

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Cardiology Grand Rounds

October 25: No CGR this week.

CME & Other Events

October 17-28: Open Enrollment period for 2023 for all Duke faculty and staff.

October 28: Duke Caregiver Community Event, in-person conference. Details here: https://duke.is/nzbcp.

November 4: 14th Annual NC Research Triangle Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium. 7 a.m.-4 p.m. This will be an in-person event at the Durham Convention Center. Registration required. To learn more and register, visit: https://duke.is/jag2b

November 5: Duke Annual Reception at AHA.22. Grand Horizon C, Marriott Marquis Chicago. 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. Questions? Contact Elizabeth Evans or Willette Wilkins.

November 14: Prostate Cancer & CVD Symposium, Webinar 4. Final of a four-part webinar series. Collaboration between the International Cardio-Oncology Society & Duke Heart. Noon, Eastern. Free. To register visit https://duke.is/ptjbs.

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:

October 14 — Mark Sendak (DIHI)

The Medical Futurist

The 8 Most Reassuring Examples of Using A.I. In Healthcare

https://duke.is/gg32v

October 17 — Joseph Turek and the Sinnamon family

WAFF TV-48 (Huntsville, AL)

World’s first heart & thymus transplant

https://duke.is/v3jh2

*clip begins @ 12:24:34

October 18 — Duke Health

Becker’s Hospital Review

10,000 patients out of network in Duke-UnitedHealthcare dispute

https://duke.is/bca28

October 19 — Shahzeb Khan, G. Michael Felker & Marat Fudim

Medscape/JACC HF

Are we Getting any Closer to Understanding Congestion?

https://duke.is/ch3hc

October 19 — Adrian Hernandez & Susanna Naggie

CBS-17 WNCN/cbs17.com (Raleigh)

COVID debate semi-settled: Antidepressant does not work as treatment

https://duke.is/wa9sg

October 20 — Adrian Hernandez & Susanna Naggie

HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report

Study Debunks Use of Antidepressant Luvox as COVID Treatment

https://duke.is/jp5pj

Duke Heart Pulse October 16th 2022

October 16, 2022 / Leave a comment

Wang to become Chief of Comparative Effectiveness Research at PCORI

Tracy Wang, MD, professor of medicine in cardiology at Duke and Director of Health Services & Outcomes Research at the Duke Clinical Research Institute, has accepted an exciting new role as Chief of Comparative Effectiveness Research at the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Her last day at Duke will be Nov. 7.

“After almost 20 years at Duke, I have made the difficult decision to pursue a totally different career pathway at PCORI in Washington, DC,” Wang wrote in a message to colleagues. “As many of you know, it’s been a true privilege to train here at Duke, and my time as faculty has continued to offer learning opportunities every day as I work alongside amazing colleagues and friends.

“Here, we have a unique environment that allows us to contribute to medicine by taking care of some of the sickest patients out there, by taking on meaningful and impactful scientific research, and by growing the next generation of cardiologists and researchers. It has been a true honor to serve here and, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for all your support, collegiality, and friendship over the years.”

Tracy has been an inspiration to generations of cardiology fellows and faculty and has won numerous mentoring awards. She has been tireless in her pursuit of improving quality of our care and has been a consummate collaborator and leader in our Division. The ability to shape the national landscape of comparative effectiveness research through PCORI seems like the a position built for someone with her skills, passion, and desire to improve health through clinical science. Tracy is a world-class physician researcher who will undoubtedly bring critical thinking and common sense solutions that will have immediate impact on all of those around her.

Personally, it is bittersweet to have her leave our Duke Heart team and the DCRI, but we are excited for this next stage of her career and we look forward to continued collaboration and friendship with her over the coming years.

Congratulations, Tracy!

Gehling Joins Duke Development; Will Support Duke Heart

Please join us in welcoming William Gehling to Duke Heart! Gehling is the new Director of Development for Heart and Lung in the office of Duke Health Development and Alumni Affairs. He began his position in late August and has spent the last month acclimating to DUHS.

William relocated here from New York, where he most recently served as a director of development at Stony Brook Medicine supporting their Department of Surgery as well as Stony Brook Children’s. He has prior experience with fundraising and alumni relations at the Center for Reproductive Rights, Weill Cornell Medicine, NYU Langone Health, and New York-Presbyterian.

Gehling says he looked at the chance to work for Duke Health as an opportunity to reconnect with his roots.

“My family is still here in North Carolina, so it’s nice to be able to be closer to them,” he said. “I really love academic medicine fundraising and the opportunity to support Duke Heart is special to me because my father had care here. Dr. Milano was his provider and I can really attest to the amazing care that was provided to our family. It’s nice to go full circle and give back to support a program that supported us as a family.

“Overall, I’m excited to support the tripartite mission. I know the faculty here are just really incredible. They have a vision they are trying to execute and that’s where my job comes in. I can’t do the medical work or the discovery work that they’re doing, but I can help find the right donor to support their efforts. I know that every time I’m raising funds, another family is going to be provided for and that’s really special.”

Originally from the greater Charlotte area, William holds a bachelor’s degree from NC State University. He enjoys running and has completed two New York City marathons.

Welcome to Duke Heart, William!

Notable Efforts & Recent Happenings

Camille Frazier-Mills and Sana Al-Khatib served as program faculty for the Women in Electrophysiology summit held at the Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile in Chicago Oct. 13-15.

Tommy D’Amico served as a member of the program committee for the AATS International

Thoracic Surgical Oncology Summit held in NYC Sept. 30-Oct. 1

Jason Katz served as a course director for the 2^nd Annual NYU Langone Critical Care Cardiology Symposium held in NYC Oct. 13-14.

The Duke Cardio-Oncology 2022 conference Cardio-Oncology in the Era of Precision Medicine was held at the J.B. Duke Hotel & Conference Center in Durham on Friday, Oct. 14. Michel Khouri and Susan Dent co-led the program. The conference was very well attended and we continue to be excited about this growing area of research and improved care for patients. Khouri presented “Risk Identification and Management Strategies of Cardiotoxicities” and Nishant Shah presented “Identifying Cardiometabolic Risk and Preventive Cardiology Strategies.”

Congratulations to all – great job!

Celebrating Sonographers

October is Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month, and we would like to take a moment to thank all of the sonographers throughout Duke Heart for their hard work and dedication to the field of Cardiovascular Ultrasound. Our Duke Heart Center patients benefit from your expertise, careful attention to detail, and thoughtful care. We are grateful to work alongside each of you!

Speaking of sonographers… we’re excited about a newly published book with submissions by several of our team members. Please see our next story.

New Congenital Echocardiography Guide Now Available

A new reference guide for congenital echocardiography is now available. The first edition of Congenital Echocardiographer’s Pocket Reference was authored by Richie Palma, Director of the Duke Cardiac Ultrasound Certificate Program, and Melissa Wasserman, Supervisor of Echo Lab Satellite Operations at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The book includes contributions from 33 of the top sonographers in the U.S., including Duke’s own Colin Dunbar, Tracy Ralston, Ashlee Davis and Jon Owensby. Gregory Tatum, MD, Medical Director of Duke Children’s Specialty Clinic of Greensboro and Director of Quality and Education for the Duke Pediatric Echocardiography Lab, wrote the forward and served as editor.

The book has 32 chapters and offers access to hundreds of videos and diagrams. Tatum says it’s “the perfect book for someone who is beginning their career in echocardiography, as well as someone who wants to refresh on topics within congenital heart disease. Palma and Wasserman have created an invaluable reference resource for all learners and practitioners of congenital echocardiography.”

The book, published this summer, is currently available only through the Arizona Heart Foundation.

Congratulations to all involved!

Shout-out to Senman

Congratulations to second year fellow Balim Senman — she was the only cardiology trainee invited to participate in and lead a session at the 2nd annual NYU Langone Critical Care Cardiology Symposium held Oct. 13-14 in NYC. Senman co-moderated an incredible breakout discussion on the impact of “Social Media in Critical Care Cardiology Education, Research and Professional Advancement.”

Great job, Balim!

Kudos to Kosovec

Congratulations to Juliann Kosovec, a resident in Duke’s General Surgery Residency Program — she and her co-authors won the best poster award at the AATS’s International Thoracic Surgical Oncology Summit held Sept. 30-Oct. 1 at the Sheraton New York Times Square in NYC. Their abstract, Redefining Quality Metrics in cN2M0 Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, can be found here.

Way to go, Juliann!

Shout-out to Rao

Congratulations to Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology fellow Vishal Rao – he has been named a top reviewer to the Journal of Cardiac Failure (JCF).

In a letter sent to Manesh Patel from the journal’s Editor-in-Chief Robert Mentz and Deputy Editor Anu Lala-Trinidade, they stated, “Of a large pool of expert reviewers, Dr. Rao stood out for being timely and providing insightful comments that contributed meaningfully to the improvement of manuscripts and publication decision processes. We recognize the numerous demands on Dr. Rao’s time and are especially grateful for the time and effort that goes into providing high-quality impactful reviews. Dr. Rao was acknowledged publicly at the JCF reception at the HFSA Annual Scientific Meeting on October 2, 2022, for his contributions. We look forward to Dr. Rao’s further work with the JCF family.”

Well deserved, Vishal!

Duke Team Attends AMPATH Global Gathering

The AMPATH Global Gathering was held last weekend in Indianapolis and Duke was well represented. The team celebrated advancing our commitment to global health and in particular, our relationship with Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in El Doret, Kenya. AMPATH (Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare) is a partnership between MTRH and a consortium of North American institutions led by Indiana University.

AMPATH began working in western Kenya in 1988 and has been most widely known for its work addressing HIV/AIDS. Duke joined the AMPATH consortium in 2009 with support from a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) grant to create a cardiovascular and pulmonary disease Center of Excellence. The Cardiovascular Center of Excellence partnership has been a joint effort led by the Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health (HYC), the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) and Duke Heart, with initial leadership from Duke faculty members Eric Velazquez (now at Yale) and Gerald Bloomfield.

Clinical educational efforts have been led by John Lawrence, adjunct assistant professor of medicine in cardiology at Duke. Lawrence has, since the earliest years, has spent four to eight months a year in Kenya helping to establish a clinical cardiovascular service including a robust outpatient clinic, inpatient teaching service, opening a new 10-bed cardiac care unit and leading the development of a Cardiovascular Fellowship Training Program at Moi University with the support of HYC.

HYC is led by Executive Director Chris Woods, Executive Director Nathan Thielman and Director of Operations Cynthia Binanay, who has led the Kenya Operations with HYC since 2006. Since 2009, the cardiovascular efforts have been supported by expanding partnerships within Duke, with other AMPATH institutions, and the DUCCS alumni network.

Duke Heart has been a consistent partner and supporter of the Cardiovascular COE since its inception. Numerous physicians, nurses and echocardiographers have rotated there for educational and consultative activities. Duke trainees have rotated at MTRH as part of the Global Health Residency Pathway, and many have been mentored by Bloomfield as Fogarty Global Health Fellows, Doris Duke Clinical Scholars and junior faculty at Duke with ongoing support from Duke Heart for global health efforts.

Pictured here (left to right) are some members of the partnership who attended the Global Gathering last weekend: Gerald Bloomfield, Cory Miller, Nick Nguyen, Titus Ngeno, Felix Barasa (Head, Cardiology Unit at MTRH), Wilson Sugut (Head, Department of Medicine at MTRH), Duke hospitalist Rebecca Lumsden, Andrew McCrary, Lauren McCrary, Cynthia Binanay, Tara Holder (former Duke IM resident, current ICC fellow at Vanderbilt), Rob Nealy (UT Austin, Cardiothoracic Surgery); Shanti Nulu (UT Austin, Cardiology), Dale Lawrence, and John Lawrence.

Bloomfield, Ngeno, Lawrence and others have been pillars leading the development of clinical programs and research with our colleagues at MTRH. They’ve done incredible work in El Doret and we look forward to all they will continue to accomplish.

Photo of the Week

Magnus Ohman, adjunct professor of medicine in cardiology, met recently with long-time Duke Heart supporters Mr. and Mrs. Albert “Lynn” Williams over lunch at the Washington Duke Inn.

Ohman said, “We had a wonderful meeting and we spoke about their philanthropy supporting the lecture in Cardiovascular Genetics. He and his wife shared how meaningful it was for them to support this and to see all the outstanding scientists that have spoken at these lectures over the years. They also commented on how cardiovascular genetics are now moving to the forefront in several areas of cardiology.”

Having fostered numerous relationships with Duke Heart donors, grateful patients and the Duke Health development teams over many years, Ohman enjoys maintaining these connections.

“Philanthropy is so rewarding, as it is so meaningful to a donor and so important for the academic aspects of medicine that otherwise would not be possible,” Ohman added. “It’s a true win-win situation.”

Additional Reminders:

October is Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month – thank a sonographer!
National Physician Assistant Week was celebrated Oct. 6-12. We are so grateful for the incredible work our PAs do throughout Duke Heart and throughout the Health System. Thank you!
Open Enrollment starts tomorrow and runs Oct. 17-28. This is your opportunity to review your medical, dental, vision, and reimbursement account benefit elections and make any changes necessary to ensure your choices continue to meet your needs. You should have received a copy of the annual Open Enrollment Guide in the mail from Duke HR.
The DUHS annual flu vaccination campaign is underway. The deadline for staff vaccinations is Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 10 a.m. Vaccination sites for faculty and staff can be found here: https://flu.duke.edu/vaccination/employees/
Duke Health has launched our first comprehensive Team Member Referral Program. Team members at Duke University Health System and Duke University who refer qualified candidates for any posted clinical or non-clinical positions at https://careers.dukehealth.org/ may be eligible for a monetary bonus and prizes. To learn more, visit: https://duke.is/2sjkv

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Cardiology Grand Rounds

October 18: PRECIDENT D Study at Duke with Schuyler Jones. 5 p.m. Webex. This event will be online only.

CME & Other Events

October 17-28: Open Enrollment period for 2023 for all Duke faculty and staff.

October 28: Duke Caregiver Community Event, in-person conference. Details here: https://duke.is/nzbcp.

November 5: Duke Annual Reception at AHA.22. Marriott Marquis Chicago. 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. Questions? Contact Elizabeth Evans or Willette Wilkins.

Have news to share?

Duke Heart in the News:

October 7 — Joseph Turek and the Sinnamon family

WILX 10 News (Lansing, MI)

Your Health: History-making patient is thriving

https://duke.is/zbkkx

October 7 — Adrian Hernandez

The Daily Progress

UVa Health leads statewide COVID-19 clinical trial

https://duke.is/mk59u

October 7 — Senthil Selvaraj

Medscape

Dapagliflozin DELIVERs Regardless of Systolic BP in HF With Preserved EF

https://duke.is/8qjzj

October 10 — Michael Pencina

Healthcare Innovation

With Focus on Equity, Coalition for Health AI Readies Framework Release

https://duke.is/j8bcn

October 10 — Joseph Turek and the Sinnamon family

WDAM (Hattiesburg-Laurel, MS)

Medical Breakthrough

https://duke.is/rujdc

*clip starts at 5:17:05

October 12 — G. Michael Felker

Medical Dialogues

Sacubitril/Valsartan May Reduce Mitral Regurgitation in HFrEF, Eliminating Need for Interventions

https://duke.is/bj9fr

October 12 — Harry Severance

Medpage Today

Isn’t It a Seller’s Market for Healthcare Professionals?

https://duke.is/czagj

October 13 — Tommy D’Amico

rtve.es (Spain)

Diego González Rivas, el cirujano que ha operado en más países en la historia de la medicina

https://duke.is/ws8wp

Division of Cardiology Publications Indexed in PubMed October 7-12, 2022

Coats AJS, Abraham WT, Zile MR, Lindenfeld JA, Weaver FA, Fudim M, Bauersachs J, Duval S, Galle E, Zannad F. Baroreflex activation therapy with the Barostim™ device in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: a patient level meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Eur J Heart Fail 2022 Sep;24(9):1665-1673. PM: 35713888.

Garus M, Zdanowicz A, Fudim M, Zymliński R, Niewiński P, Paleczny B, Rosiek-Biegus M, Iwanek G, Ponikowski P, Biegus J. Clinical determinants and prognostic significance of hypocapnia in acute heart failure. Sci Rep 2022 Oct 7;12(1):16889. PM: 36207364.

Heffron SP, Windheim J, Barrett TJ, Voora D, Berger JS. Platelet inhibition by low-dose aspirin is not influenced by body mass or weight. Platelets 2022 Nov 17;33(8):1208-1213. PM: 35768902.

Jones MM, McElroy LM, Mirreh M, Fuller M, Schroeder R, Ghadimi K, DeVore A, Patel CB, Black-Maier E, Bartz R, Thomas K. The impact of race on utilization of durable left ventricular assist device therapy in patients with advanced heart failure. J Card Surg 2022 Nov;37(11):3586-3594. PM: 36124416.

Kunadian V, Baber U, Pivato CA, Cao D, Dangas G, Sartori S, Zhang Z, Angiolillo DJ, Briguori C, Cohen DJ, Collier T, Dudek D, Gibson M, Gil R, Huber K, Kaul U, Kornowski R, Krucoff MW, Dehghani P, Mehta S, Moliterno DJ, Ohman EM, Escaned J, Sardella G, Sharma SK, Shlofmitz R, Weisz G, Witzenbichler B, Džavík V, Gurbel P, Hamm CW, Henry T, Kastrati A, Marx SO, Oldroyd K, Steg PG, Pocock S, Mehran R. Bleeding and Ischemic Outcomes With Ticagrelor Monotherapy According to Body Mass Index. JACC Cardiovasc Interv 2022 Oct 10;15(19):1948-1960. PM: 36202563.

Morris K, Weston K, Davy A, Silva S, Goode V, Pereira K, Brysiewicz P, Bruce J, Clarke D. Identification of risk factors for postoperative pulmonary complications in general surgery patients in a low-middle income country. PLoS One 2022 Oct 11;17(10):e0274749. PM: 36219615.

Nelson AJ, Harrington JL, Kolkailah AA, Pagidipati NJ, McGuire DK. Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors: Impact on Atherosclerosis and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Events. Heart Fail Clin 2022 Oct;18(4):597-607. PM: 36216489.

Peters AE, DeVore AD. Pharmacologic Therapy for Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction. Cardiol Clin 2022 Nov;40(4):473-489. PM: 36210132.

Pineda AM, Wang A. New Pacemaker Implantation After Alcohol Septal Ablation: How Sharp Is the Double-Edged Sword? JACC Cardiovasc Interv 2022 Oct 10;15(19):1918-1920. PM: 36202560.

Salah HM, Fudim M. Sodium-glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. Heart Fail Clin 2022 Oct;18(4):625-634. PM: 36216491.

Salah HM, Fudim M. Tolerability and safety barriers to sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor initiation in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Eur J Heart Fail 2022 Sep;24(9):1633-1635. PM: 35867845.

Salah HM, Levin AP, Fudim M. Device Therapy for Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction. Cardiol Clin 2022 Nov;40(4):507-515. PM: 36210134.

Senni M, Alemayehu WG, Sim D, Edelmann F, Butler J, Ezekowitz J, Hernandez AF, Lam CSP, O’Connor CM, Pieske B, Ponikowski P, Roessig L, Voors AA, Westerhout CM, McMullan C, Armstrong PW. Efficacy and safety of vericiguat in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction treated with sacubitril/valsartan: insights from the VICTORIA trial. Eur J Heart Fail 2022 Sep;24(9):1614-1622. PM: 35791083.

Duke Heart Pulse 10-9-2022

October 9, 2022 / Leave a comment

Highlights of the week:

Duke Heart at HFSA 2022

Duke Heart had a great turnout at the 2022 Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) Annual Scientific Meeting held Sept. 30- Oct. 3 at Gaylord National Harbor in Washington, DC.

Congratulations to all presenters, including Mike Felker with a LBCT presentation, “Effect Of Sacubitril/valsartan On Mitral Regurgitation In Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction: The PROVE-HF Study” and new faculty member Senthil Selvaraj with a LBCT presentation, “Blood Pressure, Dapagliflozin, And Cardiovascular Outcomes In Heart Failure With Preserved And Mildly Reduced Ejection Fraction: DELIVER,” which was simultaneously published in JACC HF.

Second year cardiology fellow Mark Kittipibul presented several poster sessions based on work he has done with Marat Fudim; there was an opportunity for Duke Heart team members to gather and mingle, and a JCF editorial board meeting to round things out.

Great job, everyone! Thanks to Rob Mentz and Karen Flores Rosario for photo submissions!

Duke Kannapolis Director Outlines Future at North Carolina Research Campus

Svati H. Shah, MD, MHS, spoke to partners at the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) about the pivotal role of Duke Kannapolis at the 350-acre translational science hub focused on human health and nutrition.

The Duke University School of Medicine has created in Duke Kannapolis a full-service research site that manages a wide variety of clinical and translational research projects to inform a deeper understanding of health and disease and to accelerate population health research.

“This is Duke’s investment in the NCRC,” Shah said Sept. 15 at the campus, located just north of Charlotte. “We embrace the mission of this unique scientific community working together collaboratively to empower human health through research, and we are extremely proud to be one of eight universities on the campus.”

Her talk marked the first time that Shah has presented to NCRC partners since being named to direct Duke Kannapolis.

Shah spoke about the history and capacity-building of Duke Kannapolis, part of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). Founded in 2007 by Robert Califf, MD, MACC, now commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Duke Kannapolis has reached 22,339 total enrollments by 13,886 unique participants — and counting.

“Our community of engaged research participants are our most valuable asset, with many enrolling in multiple research projects,” Shah said.

Built on the foundational MURDOCK Study and Project Baseline Health Study, Duke Kannapolis has 58 funded research projects with 110 Duke faculty, as well as dozens of collaborations with investigators and institutions outside of Duke. Current areas of work include COVID-19, pain, mental health, smoking cessation, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, aging, chronic kidney disease, and more.

Shah welcomed new projects and collaborations with NCRC partners and encouraged attendees to explore the MURDOCK Study storefronts, which summarize data and samples at a glance for populations of interest. Duke Kannapolis has also streamlined access to biospecimens with a new biorepository transformation initiative, she said.

“We measure collaboration by relationships, and every project is an opportunity to strengthen these relationships through research,” Shah said.

Duke Kannapolis has developed a high level of community engagement by utilizing community advisory boards, marketing and communications, bilingual staff, events, and community partners including civic, church, and health organizations. Noting proven strategies for recruitment, retention, and engagement across diverse participant populations, Shah also attributed the success of Duke Kannapolis community engagement to bidirectional communication and 15 years of building trust with residents.

“We see participants as partners, and we prioritize personal connections with the community and open information flow to and from participants,” she said.

Shah thanked NCRC partners for warmly welcoming Duke University President Vincent Price recently during his first visit to the campus. Key takeaways from in-depth discussions with Price included the importance of success through collaboration and shared goals, as well as the need to address disparities impacting research, healthcare, workforce development, and more.

Shah defined her vision for the future of Duke Kannapolis as harnessing innovations in contemporary precision medicine integrated with implementation science, education, and clinical infrastructure to accelerate discovery and transform patient care.

“Ultimately, we want more precise diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic decision-making for the individual person,” Shah said. “And we are thrilled to work with this collaborative, interdisciplinary scientific community toward that end.”

Kudos to Ouyang & Huber, Gaca & 3100 team!

We received accolades from a patient for a number of our providers on DUH Unit 3100 recently. Here is what they said:

“Duke is obviously known for the quality of health care received. During 3 major events over the last 2 years at Duke the most impressive learning is not just medical professionalism, but the genuine caring, respect, empathy, you feel from everyone at Duke; from the Valet, to Admit, Housekeeping, all Nurses and Techs, and Providers.

“A special mention to Dr. Gaca and his Surgical Team and the entire crew in the 3100 Section of the heart center. 5 RNs (Rosseli, October, Camyron, An Valery and Michelle) all deserve a special mention as well NPs Wendy and Jessica.” – A grateful patient (name withheld for privacy)

“Wendy and Jessica, thank you for all you do for the patients and your teamwork. You do awesome work which does not go unnoticed. We are so happy to have you as part of the Duke Heart Center.” — Diane Sauro, Director, Advanced Practice, Duke Heart Center.

“Thanks Wendy and Jessica for living the Duke values. We are fortunate to have you on the Duke team. Shout-out to Dr. Gaca, his team and all of 3100 for making sure our patients are getting the best care possible. Celebrate your awesomeness!” – Jill Engel, Service Line Vice President – Heart & Vascular.

Way to go, everyone!

Alumni News: Harrington Receives Stokes Medal

Interventional cardiologist Robert Harrington, current chairman of the Department of Medicine at Stanford and former director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute received the Irish Cardiac Society (ICS) Stokes Medal this week. Each year an individual who made outstanding contributions to the profession of cardiology and who has Irish connections is invited by ICS leadership to present to the membership body as the Stokes lecturer; they are then presented with the ICS Stokes Medal.

Congrats, Bob!

Pakistan Update

We checked in again with Zainab Samad, chair of the Dept. of Medicine at Aga Khan University in Karachi about the situation in Pakistan.

“The crisis continues and it’s growing arms now. We have an outbreak of Dengue – it’s everywhere – my kids got Dengue two weeks ago – thankfully they are better but required admission and IV fluids/IV antipyretics. Large swathes of Sind are still underwater with the water lapping the sides of the road like an ocean. It will be a long road to recovery.”

The New Yorker published a piece by Mira Sethi this week that is worth checking out: Pakistan’s Unseen Climate-Change Survivors

If you are interested in helping – donations are being accepted by AKU. They are appreciative of any help. https://duke.is/b7xj7

Additional Reminders:

It’s National Physician Assistant’s Week! October 6-12.
Nominations are open for 2022-23 Duke Presidential Awards: https://duke.is/pambd. Deadline to nominate is Oct. 17!
The DUHS annual flu vaccination campaign is underway and will continue until mid-November. Vaccination sites for faculty and staff can be found here: https://flu.duke.edu/vaccination/employees/
On October 1, Duke Health launched our first comprehensive Team Member Referral Program. Team members at Duke University Health System and Duke University who refer qualified candidates for any posted clinical or non-clinical positions at https://careers.dukehealth.org/ may be eligible for a monetary bonus and prizes.
Open Enrollment is October 17-28. This is your opportunity to review your medical, dental, vision, and reimbursement account benefit elections and make any changes necessary to ensure your choices continue to meet your needs. Watch your email and home mail delivery for more information.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Cardiology Grand Rounds

October 11: No CGR this week

CME & Other Events

October 14: Cardio-Oncology in the Era of Precision Medicine. Symposium to be held at the J.B. Duke Hotel, Durham, NC. Registration is open: https://bit.ly/CardioOnc22. Email Beth Tanner with questions: beth.tanner@duke.edu.

October 17-28: Open Enrollment period for 2023 for all Duke faculty and staff.

October 28: Duke Caregiver Community Event, in-person conference. Details here: https://duke.is/nzbcp.

Have news to share?

Duke Heart in the News:

September 30 — Jason Katz

Cardiology Magazine/ACC

Feature|The Future of Cardiology Critical Care: Interview With Jason Katz, MD

https://duke.is/9d488

October 2 — Jason Katz

Medpage Today

Growing Calls to Marry HF Specialists With Cardiac Critical Care

https://duke.is/2b4qq

October 3 — Joseph Turek

WFRV CBS-5/Green Bay

How a heart & thymus tissue transplant could change the procedure for children around the world

https://duke.is/2cx7u

October 3 — G. Michael Felker

Medscape

Optimized HF Meds May Lessen MR Severity, Perhaps Avoiding MV Repair

https://duke.is/n3gbt

October 3 — G. Michael Felker

Healio/Cardiology

Sacubitril/valsartan improves mitral regurgitation severity in certain patients with HFrEF

https://duke.is/pmmyn

October 4 — Marat Fudim

Newstribune.com (Jefferson City, MO))

Study: People hospitalized with COVID-19 may have higher heart failure risk

https://duke.is/4w4u3

October 4 — Tracy Wang

Heart.org

Heart risk factors, not heart disease itself, may increase odds of COVID-19 death

https://duke.is/2z3d4

October 4 — Pamela Douglas

DAIC/dicardiology.com

HeartFlow Announces Late Breakers Presentation at the 2022 American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions

https://duke.is/gs9aw

October 4 — Nikki Pelot (Biomedical Engineering)

Cleveland.com

CWRU, Duke receive $15.75 million NIH grant to map nerve, develop treatments for heart, intestinal disease

https://duke.is/685g2

October 5 — Svati Shah

Independent Tribune

Duke Kannapolis director outlines future at North Carolina Research Campus

https://duke.is/ncb8j

October 5 — Joseph Turek and the Sinnamon family

WQAD (Moline, IL)

First-ever heart transplant and thymus implant gives toddler a new chance at life

https://duke.is/br3bp

Duke Heart Pulse October 2nd 2022

October 2, 2022 / Leave a comment

Highlights of the week:

Rymer Honored with Linnemeier Young Investigator Award at TCT2022

Jennifer Rymer, MD, MBA, MHS, the John Bush Simpson assistant professor of medicine, was honored at this year’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Conference as the recipient of the Thomas J. Linnemeier “Spirit of Interventional Cardiology” Young Investigator Award.

The award was announced Sept. 19 in Boston at TCT which was held in conjunction with the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). The award was presented by CRF leader Gary S. Mintz, MD, and David J. Cohen, MD, MSc, St. Francis Hospital, and CRF Director of Clinical and Outcomes Research.

“I am deeply honored,” said Rymer after the award ceremony. “The other finalists are so accomplished, and I am so honored to be considered for this award. I want to thank all of my mentors at Duke, Dr. Mehran, and also ‘Women as One’. I would not be here had it not been for those folks who have believed in me forever. I really appreciate them and all of their guidance and mentorship over the years.”

“What a thrilling moment to see Dr. Jennifer Rymer receive the TCT 2022 Young Investigator Award,” said Roxana Mehran, MD, TCT course co-director and professor of medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York.

“There is no one more deserving than Dr. Rymer for all of her relentless work in diversity, inclusion and mentorship,” said Mehran. “She is a dynamo, and someone to look out for, as she has already risen as a star, and is sure to shine for many, many more years.”

The presenters summarized the award’s history and significance, and recognized the other finalists who were considered for the award: Eric Alexander Secemsky, MD, MSc, who serves as the primary vascular interventionalist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA; and Janarthanan Sathananthan, MBChB, MPH, a clinical interventional cardiologist at St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital in Vancouver, Canada.

Mintz acknowledged past winners of the award, saying “It is simply an outstanding group of investigators, almost all who are now faculty at TCT.”

Rymer has published 70 peer-reviewed publications, 41 as first author. She is an early career academic interventional cardiologist who performs complex coronary and peripheral vascular procedures with a research focus in acute coronary syndromes and patients with severe claudication and chronic limb-threatening ischemia. Further, she performs intravascular imaging for every PCI.

“Competition was stiff, as all of the finalists are incredibly deserving, and it was a very difficult decision,” added Cohen.

Way to go, Jenn! Well deserved!

Keenan Joins Duke Heart’s Cardiothoracic Faculty

The Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery announced this week that Dr. Jeffrey E. Keenan will join their faculty effective October 10, 2022.

Keenan graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2011 where he was elected to the AOA medical honor society. He then matriculated to the surgery residency program at Duke. He graduated from the general surgery program in 2018 and achieved certification from the American Board of Surgery in 2019. He completed subspecialty training in cardiothoracic surgery in 2020.

During his training at Duke, Keenan spent two years supported by an NIH F32 National Research Service Award in order to investigate mitochondrial function and oxidative stress in the failing heart.

After completing his training at Duke in 2020, Keenan joined the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle. He achieved certification from the American Board of Thoracic Surgery in 2021.

Keenan practices as an adult cardiac surgeon with a subspecialty focus in heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. He will return to Duke as an assistant professor of surgery in the Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. Keenan aims to build a translational research program centered around the optimization of organ preservation and early allograft function in heart transplantation as well as innovating strategies to improve the surgical care of advanced heart failure and cardiogenic shock patients.

We are very pleased he is coming back to Duke! Jeff and his wife, Allison have four children — Quinn, who is seven, and Emerson, Louis, and Norah, their four-year-old triplets. All are excited to once again make Durham their hometown. Please join us in welcoming Jeff and his family back to Duke!

Three Slots Remaining! Photography Fundraiser to Support Heart Walk

Stephanie Barnes is offering family photography sessions as part of a Duke Heart fundraiser in support of the American Heart Association’s Triangle Heart Walk and Team Got Heart!. We have three openings available for Sunday, Oct. 16. Don’t miss out!

Location is Fearrington Village in Chapel Hill. Sessions are 15 minutes. Cost is $150, all of which goes to our fundraiser. Registration is required.

This is a great opportunity to get your holiday family photos done ahead of Thanksgiving. Can be couples, just your kids, small families of 2-4, maybe even have your pets with you! You will receive full access and rights to all of your digital photos via a private web portal. Expect about 20 photos total.

If you have questions, please send an email to: Got Heart Fundraiser/Photoshoot.

Nursing Open House Held

We had a great turnout for our Duke Heart RN Recruitment Open House on Thursday, Sept. 29. Our nursing teams did an outstanding job of hosting nearly 50 interested applicants. We had several dozen nurses who were unable to attend in person but who expressed interest in learning more.

We are grateful to all who contributed their time and energy for unit tours, shadowing experiences, networking and interviewing – and in publicizing our event. Thank you to all who stopped by to meet nurses who are interested in joining the Duke Heart team. Your support is part of what makes this a great place to work!

ICYMI: DHIP Town Hall

The latest Duke Health Integrated Practice Town Hall was held on Wednesday, Sept. 28. We appreciate the 400+ team members who joined us online! Leadership provided an update on the progress to date, shared the list of Strategic & Operational Transition Committee members, reviewed benefits changes for those most impacted by the change, and answered questions our team members submitted ahead of the session. You can find the recording here on Warpwire: https://duke.is/gqy7e

You can find the most up-to-date information on the DHIP site: https://dhip.org. In the coming weeks, updates on the work of each Strategic & Operational Transition Committee will also be posted there. Please consider joining any of the Strategic & Operational Transition Committee as a Participant to receive updates directly in your inbox; this is also the best way to provide input to the Committee.

If you have any questions, please email DHIP@duke.edu.

Thank you for your engagement and feedback as we build a Duke Health Integrated Practice that is prepared to welcome everyone.

New Leadership Development Opportunity via Duke AHEAD

Duke AHEAD has announced a new leadership development opportunity for emerging health professions education leaders: Leadership Onboarding for Educators Accelerator Program (LEAP). This program is designed for faculty members who are leading education programs, courses, or curriculum. LEAP is a 3 month on-boarding program and includes topics such as:

Negotiation
Budget management
Leading or teaching a multigenerational group
Developing a strategic plan for your program
Managing difficult situations and conversations
Promoting yourself and your ideas with competent humility
Networking at Duke
Promoting DEI in teaching, hiring, and communication

The inaugural program will be limited to 20 participants. You may self-nominate on the application form link below; a letter of support is required from your direct report.

All sessions will be virtual, and will be held from 4:00 -6:00 pm.

The six sessions are scheduled on Thursdays (1/26/23, 2/9/23, 3/9/23, 3/23/23, 4/13/23, and 4/27/23).

There is NO charge for the program, but applicants should commit to attending all sessions.

This leadership onboarding complements other leadership opportunities noted throughout Duke. Many clinical departments also offer leadership training; LEAP is geared toward those faculty who will be teaching learners or developing programming for learners in clinical or research settings. For a list of other leadership development opportunities around Duke, please visit here:

Application Deadline is November 2.

APPLY NOW via Qualtrics: https://duke.is/6hg8g.

Additional questions? Please reach out to mailto:dukeahead@duke.edu.

Additional Reminders:

Nominations are open for 2022-23 Duke Presidential Awards: https://duke.is/pambd.
The DUHS annual flu vaccination campaign is underway and will continue until mid-November. Vaccination sites for faculty and staff can be found here: https://flu.duke.edu/vaccination/employees/
On October 1, Duke Health launched our first comprehensive Team Member Referral Program. Team members at Duke University Health System and Duke University who refer qualified candidates for any posted clinical or non-clinical positions at https://careers.dukehealth.org/ may be eligible for a monetary bonus and prizes.
Open Enrollment is October 17-28. This is your opportunity to review your medical, dental, vision, and reimbursement account benefit elections and make any changes necessary to ensure your choices continue to meet your needs. Watch your email and home mail delivery for more information.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Cardiology Grand Rounds

October 4: Transcatheter Tricuspid Therapy with Paul Sorajja of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation and Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Allina Health Minneapolis Heart Institute, Minneapolis. 7 a.m., Webex and in person (Duke North 2003)

CME & Other Events

October 17-28: Open Enrollment period for 2023 for all Duke faculty and staff.

October 28: Duke Caregiver Community Event, in-person conference. Details here: https://duke.is/nzbcp.

Have news to share?

Duke Heart in the News:

September 23 — Marat Fudim

News & Observer

People hospitalized with COVID-19 may have higher heart failure risk, Duke study says

https://duke.is/mpnnp

September 23 — Marat Fudim

WPTF 680 AM

Some COVID patients at increased risk for heart failure

https://duke.is/6bh5c

(*clip begins @ 15:52:59)

September 23 — Derek Chew

tctMD

Most Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in CVD Fall Short

https://duke.is/pg4zg

September 26 — Marat Fudim

South China Morning Post

People hospitalised with Covid-19 may have higher heart failure risk: study

https://duke.is/4kgn8

September 29 — John Alexander

Medscape

PROACT Xa Trial of Apixaban With On-X Heart Valve Stopped

https://duke.is/8gh6h

September 29 — Jonathan Piccini

Medscape/The Bob Harrington Show

Do Older vs Younger Docs Treat Atrial Fibrillation Differently?

https://duke.is/2kxz9

September 27 — Tony Gutierrez

Univision

Septiembre es el mes de la concienciación sobre la arteriopatía periférica

https://duke.is/rc4xz

Duke Heart Pulse Week ending September 25th 2022

September 25, 2022 / Leave a comment

Highlights of the week:

Triangle Heart Walk Held Today!

The American Heart Association Triangle Heart Walk was held today at PNC Arena. We had amazing weather and a really great turnout – it could not have been better! Thank you to all of you who have helped support us throughout our effort on behalf of DUHS. We had a sea of Duke Blue at the Walk. It was so much fun to see people in person, enjoying the weather and one another’s company. We appreciate our Heart Walk Chair Richard Shannon who helped organize the Duke Fundraising.Thanks to all who joined us!

As we’ve been saying, this annual Walk is a great opportunity to come together to celebrate one another, to represent Duke Health, and to reinvigorate the commitment we have for living a heart-healthy lifestyle. What we haven’t pointed out is that this is the largest sponsorship that Duke Health maintains annually. Not only does Duke have one of the biggest teams out there each year, but we often come in as a top organization for fundraising.

Most of you know that some of these funds come back to Duke in terms of research funding – and that is a great reason to fundraise! More importantly, patients and their family members are invited to the Walk every year. At every Heart Walk held nationally, there is always a “survivor’s” tent — and many of our cardiovascular, stroke and pulmonary patients and their family members come out to the walk to celebrate their lives with us. For them to see members of our Duke Heart team and the larger DUHS community out in force – walking to support them and the AHA — is incredibly important.

We are so appreciative of all those who helped with planning, those who served as team captains, and those who raised valuable funds. We are proud of the Duke Heart team each and every day – thanks for making this a great place for patients to receive some of the best cardiovascular care in the world and for making it a very special place to work.

In case you’re wondering, it is not too late to donate to DUHS’s Heart Walk teams. We have until the end of October to collect donations – and every dollar counts, so please consider!

Duran Receives CLCD Travel Grant for AHA Sci Sessions

Jessica Duran, MD has been awarded an AHA travel grant for the upcoming AHA Scientific Sessions 2022 in Chicago, IL where her abstract was accepted as an oral presentation entitled, Abnormal Exercise Electrocardiography with Normal Stress Echocardiography is Associated with Increased Subclinical Coronary Atherosclerosis: Insights From the Project Baseline Health Study.

Duran has earned a 2022 Council on Clinical Cardiology (CLCD) Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Groups Travel Grant. This award proudly supports the research efforts of early career investigators and trainees.

She will be acknowledged as a Travel Grant recipient at the CLCD dinner on Saturday, Nov. 5 at the Hyatt Regency McCormick.

Way to go, Jessie!

Fudim Delivers Cardiology Grand Rounds

Marat Fudim gave a terrific presentation on heart failure and pressure management on Tuesday evening. It was a great tour through our understanding of volume, pressure, and innovative therapies for patients with Heart Failure.

Still Time! Photography Fundraiser to Support Duke’s Heart Walk Effort!

Join Stephanie Barnes for a fall mini-photography session fundraiser in support of the American Heart Association Triangle Heart Walk and Team Got Heart. Several slots remain!

Dates: October 9 and 16, 2022 at Fearrington Village in Chapel Hill. Each session will be 15 minutes. Cost is $150, all of which goes to our fundraiser. Registration is required.

This is a great opportunity to get your holiday family portraits done ahead of Thanksgiving. Can be couples, just your kids, small families of 2-4, maybe even have your pets with you! You will receive full access and rights to all of your digital photos via a private web portal. Expect about 20 photos total.

EDS NOTE: Stephanie is a very talented photographer and this is a great price for a private photo shoot. This is an excellent opportunity to support the AHA Heart Walk by supporting our Got Heart team. You’ll get some beautiful photographs of people you love and they will make great gifts!

A big shout-out to Stephanie for donating her time and energy to this cause. If you have questions, please send an email to: Got Heart Fundraiser/Photoshoot. Sample photos shown here are used with client permission.

This week: Nursing Open House, Sept. 29

It’s nearly here! Duke Heart’s nursing team is hosting an open house on Thursday, Sept. 29 for new and experienced nurses as part of our recruitment efforts. The Open House will allow participants to take part in unit tours, shadowing and interviews.

Please share this information with anyone you think might be a good candidate for us! They can register by scanning the QR code shown here.

Additional Reminders:

The last week of September is the last week of Atrial Fibrillation Awareness month! Hug and thank an EP team member when you see them!
The DUHS annual flu vaccination campaign is underway and will continue until mid-November. Vaccination sites for faculty and staff can be found here: https://flu.duke.edu/vaccination/employees/
The Duke Health Integrated Practice (DHIP) Town Hall will be held this week — 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28. This will be a Duke Health community-wide event. Questions you would like answered during the Town Hall can be sent ahead of time to DHIP@duke.edu.
Open Enrollment is October 17-28. This is your opportunity to review your medical, dental, vision, and reimbursement account benefit elections and make any changes necessary to ensure your choices continue to meet your needs. Watch your email and home mail delivery for more information.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Cardiology Grand Rounds

September 27: Mortality & Morbidity with Jennifer Rymer and Nishant Shah. 5 p.m. Webex and in person (Duke North 2002)

CME & Other Events

September 28: DHIP Town Hall. 7 a.m. Links/location sent via email.

September 29: Nursing Open House. Duke Heart’s nursing team is hosting an Open House as part of recruitment efforts. 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., DMP. To register: https://duke.is/mhah5

October 17-28: Open Enrollment period for 2023 for all Duke faculty members and staff.

October 28: Duke Caregiver Community Event, in-person conference. Details here: https://duke.is/nzbcp.

Have news to share?

Duke Heart in the News:

September 16 — Robert Keenan (rheumatology)

Rheumatology Advisor

Link Between Gout and Cardiovascular Events – An Interview With Robert Keenan, MD

https://duke.is/y4ya2

September 16 — Duke University Hospital

CBS17.com/WNCN

Duke Undiagnosed Diseases Network Center uncovers rare conditions, set to lose funding after 2024

https://duke.is/rsh4m

September 16 — Michael Carboni and Joseph Turek

Geo News/geo.tv

Doctors optimistic after world’s first partial heart transplant on newborn

https://duke.is/5e4rv

September 17 — Joseph Turek

WPTF News Radio 680

Weekly News Highlights

https://duke.is/nqh5u

September 18 — Owen Monroe (patient/HIPAA on file)

WKRC CBS-12/Cincinnati

What’s happening in health?

https://duke.is/p647j

(*clip begins @06:53:28)

September 20 — Joseph Turek, Michael Carboni and Monroe family

Tribune News Service

Duke doctors perform world’s first partial heart transplant on NC newborn

https://duke.is/45gnq

September 21 — Wayneho Kam (neurology)

Medpage Today

Making Low-Dose tPA Work for Japanese DOAC Users With Ischemic Stroke

https://duke.is/9hmjr

September 21 — Duke Health

Becker’s Hospital Review

Duke: Healthcare worker burnout rose to 40% during pandemic

https://duke.is/2vmt3

September 22 — Brian Sexton

Public Radio East (Eastern NC)

Duke experts measure doctor and nurse burnout

https://duke.is/gb7uc

September 22 — Manesh Patel

WRAL/FOX 50

Heart Walk this weekend

https://duke.is/vtxbn

(*clip begins @ 09:11:20)

Duke Heart Pulse – week ending September 18th 2022

September 18, 2022 / Leave a comment

Highlights of the week:

Swaminathan Named Section Chief of Cardiology, Durham VAMC

The Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center (DVAMC) recently announced the appointment of Rajesh (Raj) Swaminathan, MD, FACC, FSCAI to the role of Section Chief of Cardiology, effective August 29, 2022.

As the Durham VAMC Cath Lab Director, he has helped initiate and grow numerous clinical programs including CardioMEMS for advanced heart failure patients, novel therapies for treatment of calcified lesions and CTOs, and advanced coronary physiology and integrated/co-registered imaging platforms (IVUS/OCT) which are now utilized in >90% of PCIs at the VA. He has also been instrumental in piloting and innovating systems to reduce occupational hazards in the cath lab through robotic PCI and implementation of the new Rampart radiation shielding system allowing operators and staff to perform cardiac catheterizations without wearing lead.

Raj has also strengthened the cardiology research portfolio at the VA and has ensured that the DVAMC has been a top enrolling site in numerous national, multicenter studies including ACCELERATION, ECLIPSE, OPTIMIZE, MINT, DISRUPT CAD III, and FUSION. A new trial, TARGET BP1, was recently launched to evaluate a novel renal denervation system for hypertension.

He has contributed in many ways to the VA’s clinical, research, and educational mission. He organized quarterly educational events for cardiology staff, hospital-wide general cardiology CME symposiums, delivers periodic lectures to residents and trainees, and serves on the DVAMC Radiation Safety Committee and the national VA-CART Research & Publications committee. Raj has been instrumental in developing pathways for same day discharge after PCI and teaching transradial techniques in VA hospitals around the country. Starting this year, he will serve as the VA’s VISN-6 Lead Cardiology consultant.

In addition, Raj is deeply involved in our cardiology professional societies and was recently elected to the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) Board of Trustees. He also continues to support Duke University as past co-chair of the Duke Asian Alumni Alliance Board and is on the Board of Duke Triangle and the Duke Annual Fund Advisory Board.

“I am excited to continue building on the successful vision that Sunil Rao has fostered over many years of service to our Veterans, says Swaminathan. “I look forward to working with world-class physicians, APPs, and staff at the Durham VA as this is a pivotal time for Veteran care locally and nationally.

“Veterans have more opportunities to access care and many VAs are in the process of modernizing their facilities and expanding their services to areas of population growth,” he added. “I look forward to helping shape this next critical phase in Veteran care while continuing to work on pathways to optimize quality of care.”

Raj is a Duke alumnus (BS ’00, MD ‘04, HS ‘05). He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and was a research affiliate at the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Center, where he studied coronary stent design and led preclinical studies which supported the initial FDA approval of the Xience V Everolimus Eluting coronary stent. He completed his general and interventional cardiology fellowships at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center and continued as interventional faculty there before returning home to NC.

Congratulations, Raj!

Ken Morris Retiring from Durham VAMC

Hard as it may be to believe, Dr. Ken Morris has announced he will officially retire from the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. His official end-date was still unknown at the time of our interview with Ken but is “imminent” and dependent upon the government processing of all paperwork. He’ll remain in the area and working with fellows one day a week.

When asked about his early years and what brought him to Duke, we learned the following:

“I was an intern resident and then chief medical resident at Ohio State, and then I came here in 1976 for my cardiology fellowship with the intent of returning to Ohio State to join the faculty. But then Joe Greenfield hired me. One can certainly argue that hiring me was an error, despite what a smart guy he was. Back then, he says, when you drove into Durham, the smell of tobacco curing in barns was everywhere.

“I didn’t figure I’d be tenurable here but I also figured that four or five years on the Duke faculty would look awfully good on a resume. I decided I wanted to be on the academic side of medicine — specifically cardiovascular medicine. I thought, “Okay, this will be good for me — I’ll learn a lot more things while I’m at Duke and then I can find some other place where they will love me. But it turned out that Joe loved me here, so I stayed.”

“I chose to become a cardiologist in the first month of my internship at Ohio State. I was rounding with an attending by the name of Dr. Charlie Wooley. He was an amazing clinical scientist and an amazing clinician at Ohio State. There were four of us – two students, a resident and me. The resident was a guy named Tom O’Dorisio who subsequently became a very important collaborator with a number of people here at Duke — he could teach a rat how to make an antibody to anything; there was me, and the two students were Jeff Crawford, who eventually became the director of the Duke Cancer Center and Willa Hsueh, who went on to become the president of the American Federation for Clinical Research (now the American Federation for Medical Research). The four of us were eager and hungry to learn and Wooley was this great attending who was very willing to feed us. By the end of that rotation I knew I wanted an academic career in cardiology. So that’s how it happened. Originally I planned to become a primary care internist in Elyria, Ohio.”

Morris has been involved in many things while at Duke, but his principal clinical responsibility was as an interventional cardiologist both at Duke and the Durham VAMC. He says he got into this area of cardiology when it was still at ‘ground zero’.

“Most people don’t remember this but Harry Phillips, Richard Stack and I were all over here at the VA trying to figure out coronary angioplasty. Not a lot of cases were being done on either side of the street — not until the TAMI trials (Thrombolysis and Angioplasty in Myocardial Infarction) started up at Duke and we had the helicopter and large clinical trials going on. I never had a clinic on the Duke side; I just did emergency angioplasty and I was in the cath lab over at Duke Hospital one day a week. I got involved in a lot of the VA clinical trials — COURAGE probably being the most important of all of those.”

Over the course of his career, he says he has enjoyed having the opportunity to study a variety of things.

“Fred Cobb, who was my immediate mentor at the VA, and Joe Greenfield were interested in coronary circulation. I went to the VA initially to spend a research year learning about coronary physiology, so I worked in the animal laboratory with them. I then worked to take what we learned there and move it to the human cath lab, which dovetailed nicely with interventional work.

“I then worked with a variety of forms of cardiac imaging to learn how to get physiologic information out of an image — not just anatomy, but physiologic information. I worked with a number of collaborators on that — most notable is probably Jack Cusma. It was a blast! I was privileged to live through what I consider the ‘glory days’ of myocardial infarction therapy and getting a better understanding of coronary physiology and ischemic heart disease. I mean, there were two decades — from 1985 to 2005 — where it was just one development after another where we took what we learned in the basic lab, applied them in the clinical arena and then demonstrated the life-saving value of what we were doing. It was really cool. And there are days like that ahead for people who are moving into the right areas today.”

Over his time at Duke, he says the fact that he’s been able to contribute to the education of a large number of fellows and faculty has been his biggest accomplishment.

“I have always loved what I do. The old adage, ‘Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life,’ has certainly been true for me.”

What will he do in retirement? Morris says his avocation is music — vocal music in a choir setting and percussion music. He plans to spend a lot more time engaged in these, and since Tom Bashore keeps trying to get him to go fishing with him, he may also get to do that, too. He and Bashore were in the same medical school class at Ohio State.

“I’ve enjoyed the friendship of my colleagues here for a long time. I hope the mythological “ideals” of Duke continue to remain a reality. The tripartite mission of taking care of patients, educating clinicians and conducting the best research should remain alive and well here — I hope it will. Change is inevitable, but if change is managed well and ideals are kept, change can still honor the foundation of what has been built here.

We asked some of Ken’s closest colleagues to share their thoughts with us. Here is what they said:

From Sunil Rao, MD:

“Ken Morris is a Durham VA institution. He took over the Cardiology Section from Joe Greenfield MD. Under Ken’s leadership, the Durham VA significantly expanded its clinical enterprise. He presided over the addition of key faculty and the modernization of the cardiac catheterization lab. He is the consummate clinician, always keeping the best interests of the veterans in mind. Ken’s reading of nuclear cardiology studies is legendary – his reads were always precise and accurate. I was lucky enough to be mentored by him and will always remember the question he asked me whenever I came to him with a clinical dilemma – “what is the goal of therapy?” It was his laser focus on what is best for the patient that made the Durham VA cardiology section the best in the country. He will be greatly missed, but we are hoping that he will continue to maintain a connection to the Durham VA and continue to work with Duke fellows.”

From Tom Bashore, MD:

“I have known Dr. Ken Morris since we were medical students in the same class at Ohio State 50 years ago this year. In those days Ken was known as a “free spirit,” and I suppose he still fits that description in some, pretty much modified, ways even today. After his chief residency at Ohio State, Ken came to Duke as a Cardiology Fellow and has remained here as a faculty member since; so, his retirement now is truly the end of a remarkable era for Duke and especially for the Durham VA. All the cardiology fellows and housestaff during that long period have benefited from his great sense of humor, hearty, unmistakable laugh, great teaching skills, and outstanding clinical judgement. Just as remarkable, he figured out how to actually get things done in the complicated and, at times, frustrating bureaucracy common to all VA Medical Centers. He taught generations of cardiology fellows how to correctly cath and perform coronary interventions, although he once had a cardiology fellow who just did not have it in the cath lab. Always quick with one-liners, I never forgot his comment on the fellow’s cath rotation review where he noted that “he should never enter anyone’s room with anything sharper than his elbows.” Where Ken will undoubtedly be missed the most from the fellows’ standpoint will be that he basically has been the major consistent teacher in our cardiovascular nuclear medicine program over these many years. We all wish him the very best in retirement, where I am sure he will continue singing (he has a great voice), fly fishing (he takes each grandkid when they turn 8 to Yellowstone) and spending more time with his ever-growing family. He leaves a sparkling legacy at the VA that will be impossible to fill.”

From Mark Donahue, MD:

“I met Ken Morris on the first day of my Duke Cardiology Fellowship July 1, 1999. In those days we were assigned in 6 month blocks for our Cath Lab rotation and I was going to be at the VA for 6 months. Ken was wearing a cath lab uniform designed by Krucoff. He looked like a barber from the 50s and acted like a character straight out of an episode of M*A*S*H. That 6th month block was invaluable for me and so when I had the opportunity to leave fellowship a few months early to join the VA faculty in 2003, I took it and have been there since. Ken’s father was a navigator on a B-17 in World War II flying numerous missions over Germany. When I started at the VA these WWII vets were everywhere and I came to realize that Ken really took care of each and every one of them like a family member. He has always been able to really relate to the veteran population and their trust in him was clear. The number of anecdotes and stories about Ken could fill a book; Sunil Rao and I may someday write one. Ken made no assumptions, always looked for the truth, put the patient first and above all made it fun. He is the single most important influence on my professional career and I will miss him.”

From Raj Swaminathan, MD:

“Dr. Ken Morris has served many roles at Duke and the VA including former Cath Lab Director and Chief of Cardiology. His early research in coronary physiology and myocardial perfusion laid the foundation for future invasive assessment and treatment of coronary lesions. He has taught numerous residents and fellows and has been a role model for staff and physicians. His contributions to Veteran care and shaping the positive culture at the VA is of immeasurable importance.”

It has been a pleasure working with you, Ken! We wish you all the best in retirement and we are thrilled for our fellows that you’ll continue to work with them.

Gersh, Granger Deliver Cardiology, Medicine Grand Rounds

Chris Granger and special guest Bernard Gersh were our CGR presenters on Tuesday evening. They provided an excellent recap of ESC 2022, held Aug. 26-29 in Barcelona. Excellent discussion! Lots of great trials and commentary putting the studies in perspective. In short, more data for SGLT-2, surprising results around rheumatic heart disease and afib anticoagulation with DOACs, and some deeper dives needed to understand how to revascularize low EF patients when CABG is not an option.

Photography Fundraiser to Support AHA Team Got Heart!

Join Stephanie Barnes for a fall mini-photography session fundraiser in support of the American Heart Association Triangle Heart Walk and Team Got Heart.

Dates: October 9 and 16, 2022 at Fearrington Village in Chapel Hill. Each session will be 15 minutes. Cost is $150, all of which goes to our fundraiser. Registration required.

This is a great opportunity to get your holiday family portraits done ahead of Thanksgiving. Can be couples, just your kids, small families of 2-4, maybe even with your pets! You will receive full access and rights to all of your digital photos via a private web portal. Expect about 20 photos total.

Editor Note: Stephanie is a very talented photographer and this is a great price for a private photo shoot. This is an excellent opportunity to support the AHA Heart Walk by supporting our Got Heart team. You’ll get some beautiful photographs of people you love and they will make great gifts!

Heart Walk is Next Weekend! Sunday, Sept. 25

One week remaining!! The American Heart Association Triangle Heart Walk is taking place next weekend on Sunday, September 25 at PNC Arena. Please plan to join us. Let’s make sure we have plenty of Duke Blue visible out there!

The annual Walk is a great opportunity to come together to celebrate one another, to represent Duke Health, and to reinvigorate the commitment we have for living a heart-healthy lifestyle. We are so appreciative of all of our team members who are taking time to plan for this event and raise funds.

Thank you to everyone who has already signed up to participate. It’s not too late! If you’d still like to register, visit the DUHS team page for the Walk and/or contact Sangeetha Menon from the AHA at sangeetha.menon@heart.org.

If you can’t join us in person, please consider a contribution of any amount to one (or more!) of the teams representing Duke Heart.

If you met the August 24 registration t-shirt deadline, you are eligible for a t-shirt. They will be available through your team captain this week, starting on Tuesday. Each team captain will be contacted via email to alert them where to go (and when) for pick-up. Walkers will need to get their shirt from their team captain.

If you missed the deadline for a shirt, please wear your favorite Duke Blue t-shirt or golf style shirt to the Heart Walk. You can even wear a shirt from a past Heart Walk. NOTE: T-shirts will NOT be distributed at the Walk.

Thank you! If you have questions, email Tracey Koepke.

Nursing Open House, Sept. 29

Coming up! Duke Heart’s nursing team is hosting an open house on Thursday, Sept. 29 for new and experienced nurses as part of our recruitment efforts. The Open House will allow participants to take part in unit tours, shadowing and interviews.

Please share this information with anyone you think might be a good candidate for us! They can register by scanning the QR code shown here.

Congratulations to Tannu!

Congratulations to Manasi Tannu! Last weekend, Manasi was married to Alex Commanday, a first-year infectious disease fellow at UNC. They held a fusion ceremony in Charlotte, NC combining aspects of Hindu, Baha’i and Jewish wedding traditions. They had a three-day long weekend of wedding festivities with many performances, including a dance by Duke Cardiology fellows Mark Kittipibul, Nkiru Osude and former fellow Ijeoma Eleazu. It was a weekend to remember!

Congratulations and best wishes, Manasi and Alex. We are so happy for you!

Photos of the Week

More great photos captured on Twitter this week – our selection today is from the Mentz family – all of them sporting their Duke blue yesterday in Durham. We especially like the ‘Know Your Numbers’ shirt from last year’s Triangle Heart Walk. Way to go!!!

Saturday was both a home football game and employee appreciation day at Wallace Wade Stadium. The weather was gorgeous and we’re happy to report that the Blue Devils beat the NC A&T Aggies 49-20!

We hope all who were able to attend had a great time!

Additional Reminders:

September is Atrial Fibrillation Awareness month!
The DUHS annual flu vaccination campaign began on Thursday and will continue until mid-November. Vaccination sites for faculty and staff can be found here: https://flu.duke.edu/vaccination/employees/
The Duke Health Integrated Practice (DHIP) Town Hall has been rescheduled for 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28. This will be a Duke Health community-wide event. Questions you would like answered during the Town Hall can be sent ahead of time to DHIP@duke.edu.
Open Enrollment is October 17-28. This is your opportunity to review your medical, dental, vision, and reimbursement account benefit elections and make any changes necessary to ensure your choices continue to meet your needs. Watch your email and home mail delivery for more information.
Duke Health has closed its dedicated COVID Nurse Triage line for questions from patients, employees, students and families as of Sept. 1 due to the decrease in calls and a significant increase in community resources. The Duke Health COVID hotline for employees (919-385-0429) remains operational.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Cardiology Grand Rounds

September 20: Pressure and Volume Management in Heart Failure with Marat Fudim. 5 p.m. Webex only: https://duke.is/rr8x5.

CME & Other Events

September 20: Duke Caregiver Community Event, Virtual Sessions. Details here: https://duke.is/nzbcp.

September 22: Multimodality CV Imaging Conference. Topic: Mitral Regurgitation with Fawaz Alenezi. 12-1 p.m., Zoom: https://duke.is/58kut

September 25: Triangle Heart Walk. PNC Arena, Raleigh. Check-in and festivities start at 11 am. Walk begins at Noon. Join us!

September 28: DHIP Town Hall. 7 a.m. Links/location forthcoming. Watch your email.

September 29: Nursing Open House. Duke Heart’s nursing team is hosting an Open House as part of recruitment efforts. 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., DMP. To register: https://duke.is/mhah5

October 17-28: Open Enrollment period for 2023 for all Duke faculty members and staff.

October 28: Duke Caregiver Community Event, in-person conference. Details here: https://duke.is/nzbcp.

Have news to share?

Duke Heart in the News:

September 1 — Harry Severance

Medpage Today’s Kevin MD

Monkeypox: Should the hospitality and transportation industries worry?

https://duke.is/y2j8q

September 9 — Shahzeb Khan

tctMD

Older Adults See Rebound in Rates of HF-Related Death: CDC Data

https://duke.is/r78tu

September 9 — Jonathan Piccini

HealthDay.com

COVID May Help Trigger A-Fib in Some Patients*

https://duke.is/5skuj

*also carried by 144 additional outlets including in Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, New York & U.S. News & World Report

September 9 — Jonathan Piccini

Newsmax Health

COVID Associated With Higher Risk for A-Fib

https://duke.is/n3b2d

September 12 — John Alexander

MIMS/Pharmacy

Asundexian + DAPT a treatment alternative for acute MI?

https://duke.is/8uan3

September 12 — Shahzeb Khan

Practical Cardiology

Heart Failure-Related Mortality Increasing Among Older Adults in US

https://duke.is/c835t

September 13 — Jonathan Piccini

Cardiac Rhythm News

Researchers find link between COVID-19 and new-onset AF

https://duke.is/wy97n

September 14 — Duke University Hospital

Becker’s ASC Review

World’s top 20 hospitals for cardiology

https://duke.is/4p3we

September 14 — Andrew Wang

Medpage Today

Aggressive Alcohol Septal Ablation for HCM Holds Up, Pacemakers Notwithstanding

https://duke.is/2j54d

September 14 — Joe Turek and Michael Carboni

Seattle Times

Doctors perform world’s first partial heart transplant on newborn

https://duke.is/9w95m

September 14 — Joe Turek and Michael Carboni

Cardiovascular Business

Cardiac surgeons perform the world’s first partial heart transplant

https://duke.is/g4jrf

September 15 — Sana Al-Khatib

Healio/Cardiology

VIDEO: Digital health meeting covered health equity, remote monitoring, more

https://duke.is/vs8ax

September 15 — Andrew Wang

tctMD

Pacemaker Doesn’t Harm Outcomes of Alcohol Septal Ablation for Obstructive HCM

https://duke.is/zakt6

September 15 — John Alexander

Medical Dialogues

Asundexian Promising Oral Anticoagulant in Post-Myocardial Infarction Patients

https://duke.is/mg2nb

September 15 — Joe Turek and Michael Carboni

dotmed.com

Duke Health performs world’s first partial heart transplant on newborn

https://duke.is/89a67

September 15 — Joe Turek and Michael Carboni

WWAYtv3.com (Cape Fear, NC)

UPDATE: Leland baby with believed to be first partial heart-transplant in world thriving

https://duke.is/wn97a

Duke Heart Pulse September 11th 2022

September 11, 2022 / Leave a comment

Chief Message:
We recognize and remember victims, family members, and survivors of 9-11-2001, and appreciate all of the people that work to ensure that our country and the world remain safe. Importantly, we hope that our country will continue to unite and remember the sacrifices and lives lost – many of which were remembered today at the ground zero ceremonies.

Highlights of the week:

Duke Health Performs World’s First Partial Heart Transplant

A team at Duke Health has performed what is believed to be the world’s first partial heart transplant, with the living arteries and valves from a freshly donated heart fused onto a patient’s existing heart.

The goal is to allow the valves to grow with the pediatric patient over time, increasing life expectancy. The team believes a similar approach could be used to place newly donated heart valves in countless other children with heart defects.

This animated video explains and illustrates the innovative procedure.

“This procedure potentially solves the problem of a growing valve,” said Joseph W. Turek, MD, PhD, Duke’s chief of pediatric cardiac surgery, who led the landmark surgery.

“If we can eliminate the need for multiple open-heart surgeries every time a child outgrows an old valve, we could be extending the life of that child by potentially decades or more,” Turek said.

The surgery was performed on 5-pound newborn, Owen Monroe. His family is from Leland, NC, but he was born at Duke after his parents learned that he had a condition called truncus arteriosus, in which his two main heart arteries were fused together. Worse still, his one vessel was equipped with a leaky valve, making it unlikely he could survive the wait for a full heart transplant.

Typically, children in situations like Owen’s would receive two preserved cadaver arteries with valves. But the implanted tissue used in this procedure doesn’t grow with the child’s own heart because it’s not living. Pediatric patients require multiple follow-up open heart surgeries to replace the valves with larger ones, dramatically limiting their life expectancy.

In the novel partial heart transplant, Turek and the Duke team — including fellow pediatric heart surgeon, Nicholas Andersen, MD and a large team of anesthesiologists, nurses, technicians and support staff — used living tissue and valves. The tissue was procured from a donor heart that had strong valves, but could not be used for full transplant due to the condition of the muscle.

The team’s effort to implant valves that could grow along with a patient appears to be a success. Owen is showing remarkable growth and improvements since undergoing the surgery on April 22, 2022, and his outlook remains strong.

“What’s particularly remarkable about this procedure, is that not only is this innovation something that can extend the lives of children, but it makes use of a donated heart that would otherwise not be transplantable,” said Michael Carboni, MD, an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine and Owen’s pediatric transplant cardiologist.

“The valves in this procedure come from a donor heart that had muscle tissue which was too weak to make it viable for full transplant but had strong valves that were well suited for Owen’s needs.” Carboni said. “This innovation amplifies the ways in which we can use the incredible gift of organ donation to save more lives.”

Experts at Duke are hopeful a similar approach could be used to treat common valve replacements in children, providing a one-time surgery to implant freshly donated tissue that could grow with the child.

“As harrowing of an experience as it was for our family, we knew from the beginning that Owen was in the best hands,” said Nick Monroe, Owen’s father. “Our greatest hope is that Owen’s success story will change the way organ donation and transplants are handled not only for congenital heart disease babies, but for all patients.”

Congratulations to the team and to Owen and his family!

To hear more about Owen’s story, please visit: https://duke.is/63jk7. There are links to news coverage in our News section, below.

President Price Applauds Research, Innovation at Duke Kannapolis Campus

Duke University President Vincent E. Price visited Duke’s clinical research office at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis on Thursday, Sept. 8. Duke Kannapolis demonstrates Duke’s commitment to advancing community health and improving lives across the state.

During roundtable discussions with Duke collaborators, local leaders, and study participants, Price spent his historic visit learning more about the unique research facility that has enrolled nearly 14,000 volunteers in dozens of studies using a successful community-engaged research model. Duke Kannapolis is a part of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).

“Through community-based research and partnerships, Duke Kannapolis is on the forefront of population health research,” said Price, 10th president of Duke University and the first to visit Duke Kannapolis. “I am very grateful for the community leaders in Kannapolis and across the state who are strengthening Duke’s research and education missions to serve North Carolinians.”

Newly appointed Duke Kannapolis Director Svati H. Shah, MD, MHS, welcomed Price to Duke Kannapolis, which was founded in 2007 by Robert Califf, MD, Duke adjunct professor of medicine and commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“I am so grateful for the time President Price gave us today to hear our story, see for himself the amazing work that’s happening here, and meet the extraordinary people who make this work a success,” she said. “Our partnership with our community in Kannapolis and Cabarrus County remains a vital and essential component of our success at Duke Kannapolis.”

Most Essential Component

Shah, who was recently tapped to lead Duke Kannapolis by CTSI Director L. Ebony Boulware, MD, MPH, shared her vision with Price to continue expanding work in omics, precision medicine, and population health with an increased focus on digital health, artificial intelligence, and genomic medicine to accelerate the translation of research to improved patient care.

While she builds new partnerships both within Duke and at the North Carolina Research Campus, Shah said the most important partner for Duke Kannapolis will remain the community itself.

“Our partnership with you, our community collaborators in Kannapolis and Cabarrus County, is the single most essential component of our success,” she told local leaders and study participants. “With your vision in reimagining the quality of life for your community, there is more for us to do and accomplish together.”

Community stakeholders at the event included representatives from the City of Kannapolis, City of Concord, Cabarrus Health Alliance, and El Puente Hispano, as well as participants in studies ranging from COVID-19 research to low back pain. Elected leaders included NC representative Kristin Baker.

The full story continues here: https://duke.is/wvjc3.

Skorton Delivers Cardiology, Medicine Grand Rounds

We welcomed Dr. David J. Skorton, President and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges to Duke this past week as the Pamela S. Douglas, MD Visiting Scholar. Skorton gave Cardiology Grand Rounds in a special session held Thursday evening both in-person and online. His topic was ‘The Art and Science of Leadership’. A reception in the Doris Duke Center at Duke Gardens followed the presentation.

He also delivered his presentation, ‘Advancing Diversity Equity and Inclusion in Academic Medicine: Its Critical Importance and the Role We All Must Play’ for Medicine Grand Rounds on Friday morning.

Skorton is a cardiologist specializing in congenital heart disease and cardiac imaging. We are deeply appreciative of the time he spent with us and are grateful to all who joined us!

Rymer Delivers Endocrinology Grand Rounds

Dr. Jennifer Rymer presented Endocrinology Grand Rounds on Friday afternoon, Sept. 9. Her topic was

Women’s cardiovascular health and disparities in the treatment of women with ASCVD.

Such an important topic — way to go, Jenn!

DHIP Town Hall Rescheduled to Sept. 28

The Duke Health Integrated Practice (DHIP) Town Hall has been rescheduled for 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28. This will be a Duke Health community-wide event. Questions you would like answered during the Town Hall can be sent ahead of time to DHIP@duke.edu.

As we make progress in creating the Duke Health Integrated Practice (DHIP), the project team and subject-matter experts are answering your questions about our transition. For more questions and answers, see our recently updated FAQs at https://dhip.org/faqs.

Shiveler Named Assistant Nurse Manager, 3100, Effective Sept. 26

Duke Heart is pleased to announce that Ally Shiveler, BSN, RN, CMSRN, CNIII will become Assistant Nurse Manager Operations for Duke University Hospital’s Cardiothoracic Stepdown Unit (3100) effective September 26^th. Ally earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington in 2012. She joined Duke as a new graduate nurse on 4100 in July 2012.

During her time at Duke, Ally advanced on the clinical ladder by becoming a CNIII and has held a variety of roles on 4100 including Preceptor, Charge Nurse, Diabetes Management Champion, and POCT Trainer. Ally grew up in the Raleigh-Durham area and is excited to grow with this new opportunity in Duke Heart.

Please join us in congratulating and welcoming Ally to her new role!

Shout-out to Duke Transplant Teams & UNOS

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) on Friday shared that the U.S. has transplanted 1 million organs. As of the end of July, Duke had contributed 10,063 to that number!

A huge hat tip to all the donors and family members who have chosen to give the gift of life – without their trust and generosity, none of this would be possible.

A very special shout-out to the hundreds of team members across Duke who are part of the transplantation process: from the medical care of patients at the end of life, to those who provide care and solace to donor families, to those providing care to patients who need a transplant. This requires so many of us! To all who help and care for patients in need of listing; the counselors, financial experts and social workers, transplant and research coordinators; the perfusionists, respiratory therapists and imaging teams; transport teams, surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, techs and all those involved in the post-op care and follow-op of transplant patients.

We are so proud of your amazing teamwork each and every day. Exceptional work!!!

Photo of the Week

A great photo from Twitter this week of some of our incredible electrophysiology staff, courtesy of Jon Piccini! September is National Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Awareness Month. Our Duke Electrophysiology team does an excellent job helping patients diagnosed with AFib, but also helps to build awareness all year long for this life threatening arrhythmia.

Did you know? In 2009, the Heart Rhythm Society and its partners worked to have the United States Senate officially designate September as National AFib Awareness Month. This was due to the growing prevalence of AFib and a desire to help the public become more familiar with the symptoms, warning signs, and available treatment options.

Nursing Open House, Sept. 29

Duke Heart’s nursing team is hosting an open house on Thursday, Sept. 29 for new and experienced nurses as part of our recruitment efforts. The Open House will allow for participants to take part in unit tours, shadowing and interviews.

Interested participants can meet our Duke Heart nursing staff and leaders anytime between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. in Duke Medicine Pavilion. Greeters will be located at the front entrance (near valets) to meet attendees and direct them to the event throughout the day. Please share this information with anyone you think might be a good candidate for us! They can register by scanning the following QR code.

Heart Walk, 9/25; Kudos to Hitting with Heart Teams

Two weeks remaining!! We are excited for the upcoming American Heart Association Triangle Heart Walk scheduled for Sunday, September 25 at PNC Arena. Please plan to join us. Let’s make sure we have plenty of Duke Blue visible out there!

KUDOS!

Kudos to all participants in the 6^th annual “Hitting with Heart” softball tournament held Saturday, Aug. 27 at Valley Springs Park in Durham. The Healthy Work Environment committee from 7 West invited multiple departments from Duke University Hospital to participate in an all-day tournament to raise money for the American Heart Association’s Triangle Heart Walk.

They were finally able to have the tournament after being cancelled for the past two years due to Covid-19. This year’s tournament included nine teams. Groups represented included 7 West, CT Stepdown, 7100, Vascular IR, Clinical Engineering, DHTS-COO, Hospital Medicine, CT OR, and 6300.

All told, the tournament raised about $500 to benefit the AHA. Way to go!!!!

Interested?? Registering to participate in the Walk is easy. Visit the DUHS team page and/or contact Sangeetha Menon from the AHA at sangeetha.menon@heart.org for help getting started or with any questions.

Thank you to everyone who has already signed up to participate. If you can’t join us in person, please consider a contribution of any amount to one (or more!) of the teams representing Duke Heart.

We are getting closer to reaching our overall DUHS fundraising goal! Please help us get there. Support our Duke Heart teams!!! (Our teams can be found here: https://duke.is/6jpdp). Thank you!

Additional Reminders:

September is Atrial Fibrillation Awareness month!
Duke HR is hosting Financial Fitness Week THIS WEEK, 12-15. Staff and faculty can attend free virtual seminars to learn more about retirement planning, preparing budgets, handling investments, and more. Learn more/register here: https://duke.is/cc52s.
The DUHS annual flu vaccination campaign begins on Thursday, September 15.
Open Enrollment is October 17-28. This is your opportunity to review your medical, dental, vision, and reimbursement account benefit elections and make any changes necessary to ensure your choices continue to meet your needs. Watch your email and home mail delivery for more information.
Duke Health has closed its dedicated COVID Nurse Triage line for questions from patients, employees, students and families as of Sept. 1 due to the decrease in calls and a significant increase in community resources. The Duke Health COVID hotline for employees (919-385-0429) remains operational.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Cardiology Grand Rounds

September 13: Guest speaker Bernard Gersh of Mayo Clinic, Rochester with Christopher Granger. 5 p.m. Webex only. (https://duke.is/pemrh)

CME & Other Events

September 12: Prostate Cancer & CVD Symposium — Collaborative Practice in Prostate Cancer: How is this actually done? Third webinar of a four-part series. Webinar series is a collaboration between the International Cardio-Oncology Society & Duke Heart. Noon, Eastern. Free. To learn more, please visit: https://duke.is/mbpte

September 12-15: Financial Fitness Week at Duke. Hosted by Duke HR. Register here: https://duke.is/cc52s.

September 16: MGR — Threatened Limbs at Duke: Multidisciplinary Care for a Multifaceted Problem with Katherine Neal and Kevin Southerland. Medicine Grand Rounds, DN 2002 or via Zoom.

September 25: Triangle Heart Walk. PNC Arena, Raleigh. Check-in and festivities start at 11 am. Walk begins at Noon. Join us!

September 28: DHIP Town Hall. 7 a.m. Links/location forthcoming. Watch your email.

September 29: Nursing Open House. Duke Heart’s nursing team is hosting an Open House as part of recruitment efforts. 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., DMP. To register: https://duke.is/mhah5

October 17-28: Open Enrollment period for 2023 for all Duke faculty members and staff.

Have news to share?

Duke Heart in the News:

September 2 — Josephine Harrington

Medscape

Early Signal of Benefit for Empagliflozin in Acute MI: EMMY

https://duke.is/6b5b6

September 6 — John Alexander

Healio/Cardiology

Asundexian inhibits factor XIa activity with no excess bleeding risk after MI, stroke

https://duke.is/pgjpb

September 7 — Jonathan Piccini

AHA Newsroom

Study finds connection between COVID-19 and new-onset AFib

https://duke.is/4k8u4

September 8 — Joseph Turek

NBC Today Show

1st ever partial heart transplant saves 5-month-old: ‘Revolutionary’ for other kids

https://duke.is/n4b4n

*this story was carried on NBC affiliate stations nationally

September 8 — Michael Carboni and Joseph Turek

WRAL/NBC-5

Duke surgeon explains pioneering partial heart transplant

https://duke.is/9fkkw

Additional version:

WRAL/NBC-5

Newborn saved with first-of-its-kind heart transplant at Duke

https://duke.is/bv3r8

September 8 — Joseph Turek and Michael Carboni

WNCT/CBS (Greenville, NC)

Partial heart transplant at Duke

https://duke.is/yz89p

September 8 — Svati Shah, L. Ebony Boulware and Vincent E. Price

WBTV.com (Charlotte)

Duke University president visits Duke Kannapolis on Thursday

https://duke.is/cejac

September 8 — Michael Carboni and Joseph Turek

Healio/Cardiology

World’s first partial heart transplant completed in newborn with truncus arteriosus

https://duke.is/vm9qr

September 8 — Michael Carboni and Joseph Turek

Becker’s Hospital Review

Duke surgeons perform world’s 1st partial heart transplant

https://duke.is/zjjm9

September 9 — Jacob Schroder

USA Today

Organ transplant milestone: As US crosses 1 million mark, advances offer hope for millions more

https://duke.is/wxdeg

September 9 — Svati Shah, L. Ebony Boulware & Vincent E. Price

Salisbury Post

Duke University’s president visits clinical research office in Kannapolis

https://duke.is/jwawj

Division of Cardiology Publications Indexed in PubMed August 25–September 7, 2022

Barac YD, Toledano R, Jawitz OK, Schroder JN, Daneshmand MA, Patel CB, Aravot D, Milano CA. Right and left ventricular assist devices are an option for bridge to heart transplant. JTCVS Open 2022 Jan 22;9:146-159. PM: 36003474.

Frazier-Mills CG, Johnson LC, Xia Y, Rosemas SC, Franco NC, Pokorney SD. Syncope Recurrence and Downstream Diagnostic Testing after Insertable Cardiac Monitor Placement for Syncope. Diagnostics (Basel) 2022 Aug 16;12(8):1977. PM: 36010327.

Hernandez AF. Preface to theme issue on pragmatic and virtual trials: Progress and challenges. Contemp Clin Trials 2022 Aug;119:106816. PM: 35714912.

Lumsden RH, Pagidipati N. Management of cardiovascular risk factors during pregnancy. Heart 2022 Aug 25;108(18):1438-1444. PM: 35064047.

Minhas AMK, Sagheer S, Shekhar R, Sheikh AB, Nazir S, Ullah W, Khan MZ, Shahid I, Dani SS, Michos ED, Fudim M. Trends and Inpatient Outcomes of Primary Atrial Fibrillation Hospitalizations with Underlying Iron Deficiency Anemia: An Analysis of The National Inpatient Sample Database from 2004 -2018. Curr Probl Cardiol 2022 Oct;47(10):101001. PM: 34571106.

Mirowsky JE, Carraway MS, Dhingra R, Tong H, Neas L, Diaz-Sanchez D, Cascio WE, Case M, Crooks JL, Hauser ER, Dowdy ZE, Kraus WE, Devlin RB. Exposures to low-levels of fine particulate matter are associated with acute changes in heart rate variability, cardiac repolarization, and circulating blood lipids in coronary artery disease patients. Environ Res 2022 Nov;214(Pt 1):113768. PM: 35780850.

Moodie Z, Dintwe O, Sawant S, Grove D, Huang Y, Janes H, Heptinstall J, Omar FL, Cohen K, De Rosa SC, Zhang L, Yates NL, Sarzotti-Kelsoe M, Seaton KE, Laher F, Bekker LG, Malahleha M, Innes C, Kassim S, Naicker N, Govender V, Sebe M, Singh N, Kotze P, Lazarus E, Nchabeleng M, Ward AM, Brumskine W, Dubula T, Randhawa AK, Grunenberg N, Hural J, Kee JJ, Benkeser D, Jin Y, Carpp LN, Allen M, D’Souza P, Tartaglia J, DiazGranados CA, Koutsoukos M, Gilbert PB, Kublin JG, Corey L, Andersen-Nissen E, Gray GE, Tomaras GD, McElrath MJ. Analysis of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network 702 Phase 2b- 3 HIV-1 Vaccine Trial in South Africa Assessing RV144 Antibody and T-Cell Correlates of HIV-1 Acquisition Risk. J Infect Dis 2022 Aug 24;226(2):246-257. PM: 35758878.

Rao SJ, Douglas PS, Rzeszut A, Kwapong YA, Hayes SN, Poppas A, Mehta LS, Blumenthal RS, Sharma G. Global Differences in Parental Leave Policies and Satisfaction Among Cardiologists. Curr Probl Cardiol 2022 Oct;47(10):101299. PM: 35753397.

Stevens SR, Segar MW, Pandey A, Lokhnygina Y, Green JB, McGuire DK, Standl E, Peterson ED, Holman RR. Development and validation of a model to predict cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Cardiovasc Diabetol 2022 Aug 27;21(1):166. PM: 36030198.

Wixted D, Neighbors CE, Pieper CF, Wu A, Kingsbury C, Register H, Petzold E, Newby LK, Woods CW. Comparison of a Blood Self-Collection System with Routine Phlebotomy for SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Testing. Diagnostics (Basel) 2022 Jul 31;12(8):1857. PM: 36010206.

Armstrong PW, Zheng Y, Troughton RW, Lund LH, Zhang J, Lam CSP, Westerhout CM, Blaustein RO, Butler J, Hernandez AF, Roessig L, O’Connor CM, Voors AA, Ezekowitz JA. Sequential Evaluation of NT-proBNP in Heart Failure: Insights Into Clinical Outcomes and Efficacy of Vericiguat. JACC Heart Fail 2022 Sep;10(9):677-688. PM: 36049817.

Fiorito G, Pedron S, Ochoa-Rosales C, McCrory C, Polidoro S, Zhang Y, Dugué PA, Ratliff S, Zhao WN, McKay GJ, Costa G, Solinas MG, Harris KM, Tumino R, Grioni S, Ricceri F, Panico S, Brenner H, Schwettmann L, Waldenberger M, Matias-Garcia PR, Peters A, Hodge A, Giles GG, Schmitz LL, Levine M, Smith JA, Liu Y, Kee F, Young IS, McGuinness B, McKnight AJ, van Meurs J, Voortman T, Kenny RA, Vineis P, Carmeli C. The Role of Epigenetic Clocks in Explaining Educational Inequalities in Mortality: A Multicohort Study and Meta- analysis. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2022 Sep 1;77(9):1750-1759. PM: 35172329.

Gautam N, Ghanta SN, Clausen A, Saluja P, Sivakumar K, Dhar G, Chang Q, DeMazumder D, Rabbat MG, Greene SJ, Fudim M, Al’Aref SJ. Contemporary Applications of Machine Learning for Device Therapy in Heart Failure. JACC Heart Fail 2022 Sep;10(9):603-622. PM: 36049812.

Khan MS, Felker GM, Fudim M. Are We Getting Any Closer to Understanding Congestion? JACC Heart Fail 2022 Sep;10(9):633-636. PM: 36049814.

Spyropoulos AC, Lopes RD. Commentary on the 2021 ASH Guidelines on use of anticoagulation in patients with COVID-19 being discharged from the hospital. Blood Adv 2022 Sep 13;6(17):5045-5048. PM: 35245944.

Sun K, Corneli AL, Dombeck C, Swezey T, Rogers JL, Criscione-Schreiber LG, Sadun RE, Eudy AM, Doss J, Bosworth HB, Clowse MEB. Barriers to Taking Medications for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Qualitative Study of Racial Minority Patients, Lupus Providers, and Clinic Staff. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 2022 Sep;74(9):1459-1467. PM: 33662174.

Susman SJ, Bouffler A, Gordee A, Kuchibhatla M, Leahy JC, Griffin SM, Christenson RH, Newby LK, Limkakeng AT. Stress-Delta B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Does Not Exclude ACS in the ED. J Appl Lab Med 2022 Sep 1;7(5):1098-1107. PM: 35587711.

Duke Heart Week ending September 4th 2022

September 4, 2022 / Leave a comment

Chief’s message:

Hope you all are having a restful weekend. You may be wondering what a photo of Harry Styles is doing at the start of the Pulse. I took my daughter (soon to be 16) to his concert in Madison Square Garden this weekend. Few things in life can make you feel as old as attending one of these concerts. Given all that is going on in the world, we definitely felt blessed to be able to go and it was fun as seeing her enjoy an event like this in the big city.

Highlights of the week:

Ward Appointed Associate Dean for Faculty Development

Cary Ward, MD, associate professor of medicine in cardiology, has been appointed to the role of associate dean for faculty development in the Duke School of Medicine. In this role Ward will serve as the faculty lead for current and future School of Medicine faculty development programs including Leadership Development for Researchers (LEADER); Academic Leadership, Innovation, and Collaborative Engagement (ALICE); and the Duke Clinical Leadership Program (DCLP). She will partner with leaders in the Offices of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; Research Mentoring; APT; Professionalism; and others to maintain and grow a robust portfolio of programs that meet evolving faculty needs. Ward will also oversee the selection process for numerous School of Medicine faculty awards and the annual awards celebration to recognize and highlight the outstanding accomplishments of our faculty. Ward will report to the vice dean for faculty, Mara Becker, MD, who made the announcement on Wednesday, Aug. 31.

Ward is an adult congenital and structural heart disease specialist, and serves as the program director for the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Fellowship and the director of the Cardio-Obstetrics Program. She received her MD from the University of Virginia, completed internal medicine residency at the University of Texas at Southwestern in Dallas, and was a cardiology fellow at Duke before joining the faculty in 2007. For the past eight years, she has led professional development activities for the Department of Medicine, first as director of credentialing and more recently as the associate vice chair for provider experience and development. She is the director of the ALICE leadership development program for mid-career women faculty and has served as the director of the Duke Clinical Leadership Program since 2018.

Ward is a 2022 recipient of the Leonard Palumbo Jr., MD Faculty Achievement Award, recognizing faculty who display dedication to compassionate patient care and excellence in the teaching and mentoring of young physicians.

Ward’s longstanding health system experience and leadership with several programs in the Office for Faculty make her uniquely positioned to strengthen and grow the portfolio of faculty development offerings at Duke. The expansion of the Office for Faculty reflects the school’s ongoing commitment to the continuous professional development of our faculty.

Congratulations, Cary! Well-deserved!

CGR, Douglas Visiting Scholar Program Welcomes Skorton, Sept. 8

We’re excited to welcome Dr. David J. Skorton, President and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges to Duke on Thursday, Sept. 8 as the Pamela S. Douglas, MD Visiting Scholar! Our Women in Cardiology and current ALICE members are invited to a meet & greet with Skorton at 4 p.m.; then, at 5 p.m., Skorton will deliver Cardiology Grand Rounds. His topic is ‘The Art and Science of Leadership’. A reception in the Doris Duke Center at Duke Gardens will immediately follow his presentation.

Skorton will deliver ‘Advancing Diversity Equity and Inclusion in Academic Medicine: Its Critical Importance and the Role We All Must Play’ for Medicine Grand Rounds on Friday, Sept. 9 at 8 a.m. MGR, 8-9 a.m., Duke North 2002 and via Zoom.

Prior to becoming President of the AAMC, Dr. Skorton, a cardiologist specializing in congenital heart disease and cardiac imaging, was also President of Cornell University (2006-2015) and the University of Iowa (2003-2006), as well as the 13th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (2015-2019). He has made profound contributions to government, higher education and academic medicine.

We look forward to his presentations!

Update from Samad, AKU : Flood in Pakistan

Many of you are aware that Pakistan has experienced devastating flooding. The country experienced prolonged heatwaves in April and May of this year, leading to glacial melt in the mountain region and an earlier-than-normal and heavier than normal monsoon season, which started in mid-June. It has been reported that at least one-third of Pakistan is under water; thousands of homes are destroyed and 33 million people have been displaced.

We reached out to adjunct cardiology faculty member Zainab Samad, MBBS, MHS, now the chair of the Dept. of Medicine at Aga Khan University in Karachi, to check in on how she and her team are doing. Here is what she shared:

“Thank you so much for asking about us. It is a disaster of unimaginable proportions-over a thousand have died, over 300,000 people have lost their homes. Millions internally displaced. We will realize the full scale in a few months as food insecurity from agricultural losses and livestock loss begins to set in. Pakistan is ground zero for climate change.

AKU is working through its own units and the Aga Khan Health Services to provide medical care to flood affectees. Those who wish to donate can do so through this link: https://duke.is/b7xj7. All my best to our Duke fam!”

We are thinking of you, Zainab and the entire country!

Photo credit: Bilawal Arbab/EPA, via Shutterstock and nytimes.com.

Cardiac Ultrasound Program Celebrates Graduates

We are pleased to announce the Duke Cardiac Ultrasound Certificate Program graduates for 2022! Their commencement was held Saturday, Aug. 27 in the Great Hall of the Trent Semans Center for Health Education. Graduates of our second class of program participants are: Leila Andrews, Daisy Chang, Haleigh Collins, Hannah Eldara, Kristina Mauro, Nicholas Medlock, Courtney Snyder, and Naomi Strauther.

Speakers at the event included program medical director, Anita Kelsey, MD, vice chief for non-cardiac invasive imaging; Richie Palma, program director, and Jill Engel, DNP, service line vice president for Duke Heart & Vascular.

Program graduate Naomi Strauther was named the Joseph Kisslo Outstanding Student for 2022.

Outstanding Service awards for clinical instructors were presented to Duke Heart team members Kathryne Nobles, Danny Rivera, and Eduardo Sandoval Murillo.

This program was a mere vision just three years ago. Since then, we’ve graduated 16 participants with a 100 percent board pass rate. Our entire class of 2022 scored in the top 3 percent of all those tested nationally on a test that has a less than 50 percent pass rate on the first try.

“This is a tremendous testament to Anita and Richie who fought through a number of challenges to get this school planned and launched, and then welcomed our first class during a pandemic,” said Manesh Patel, MD, chief of cardiology and co-director of Duke Heart Center. “It also speaks to their great work at recruiting and retaining excellent students.”

Duke University Health System hired three of eight program graduates in 2021 and seven of eight this year.

“The Duke Cardiac Ultrasound Program has quickly become a hiring pipeline for Duke Health and another source of immense pride for Duke School of Medicine, Duke Heart and Duke Health,” added Engel.

The program this year saw two of its class of 2022 members (Nick Medlock and Daisy Chang) receive American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) Awards, which were presented in June at ASE 2022 in Seattle. Medlock and Chang each won a competitive national award.

Shown here are the 2022 graduates (L-R): N. Strauther; H. Collins; L. Andrews; H. Eldara; K. Mauro; C. Snyder; N. Medlock, and D. Chang, along with program director Richie Palma.

Congratulations to all!

Shout-out to Gomez

The 7100 Cardiology Stepdown team would like to recognize Cindy Gomez for receiving a Daisy Award Nomination! Cindy was recognized by a patient’s daughter who felt at peace because Cindy was her mother’s nurse. Cindy spoke slowly and at an appropriate volume for the patient to clearly understand. Cindy also recognized that the patient was having difficulty swallowing pills, so she quickly intervened, providing the patient with crushed pills instead.

Thank you, Cindy, for living Duke’s values to the fullest and providing excellent patient-centered care. Way to go!

Photo of the Week

A great photo from Twitter this week of first-year cardiology fellows Aman Kansal and Andrew Andreae celebrating the end of their cath rotation. We’re glad they enjoyed it!

Duke Heart Nursing to Host Open House, Sept. 29

Heart Walk: Sunday, Sept. 25

We are getting excited for the upcoming American Heart Association Triangle Heart Walk scheduled for Sunday, September 25 at PNC Arena. The annual Walk is a great opportunity to come together to celebrate one another, to represent Duke Health, and to reinvigorate the commitment we have for living a heart-healthy lifestyle. Incredibly, this event is only 3 weeks from today!

Please plan to join us. Let’s make sure we have plenty of Duke Blue visible at PNC Arena and that we outshine our friends from Carolina and Wake Med on September 25!

Registering is easy. Visit the DUHS team page and/or contact Sangeetha Menon from the AHA at sangeetha.menon@heart.org for help getting started or with any questions you might have about the Walk.

Thank you to everyone who has already signed up to participate. If you can’t join us in person, please consider a contribution of any amount to one (or more!) of the teams representing Duke Heart.

Help us meet our overall DUHS fundraising goals! Duke Heart’s teams can be found here: https://duke.is/6jpdp . Thank you!

Reminder: Flu Vaccine Campaign Launches Sept. 15

PDC and Duke University Health System (DUHS) require all healthcare workers to comply with our Healthcare Worker Flu Vaccination policy by either being vaccinated annually against the flu or receiving an approved exemption. Annual policy compliance is a condition of employment for all PDC and DUHS team members. Annual vaccination or policy compliance is also a condition of access to Duke Health facilities, including information systems, for those holding clinical privileges in a Duke Health facility and learners who wish to train in our facilities.

The DUHS annual flu vaccination campaign will begin on Thursday, September 15. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, limited mass flu vaccination clinics will be available at each hospital and at select off-campus work locations.

Team members will have the opportunity to get vaccinated through any of the following means:

Peer vaccination in clinical work areas will be available as in years past.
West Campus of Duke University in Blue Devil Tower providing healthcare and university worker vaccinations by appointment on various dates throughout October.
Entity-based vaccine clinics will be established; schedules will be posted and shared.
Staff member’s primary care physician or at a local pharmacy.

Peer-to-Peer Vaccination

This year’s peer-to-peer initiative will be identical to last year. Although we will not be holding a vaccination drill, we do ask that you prepare to vaccinate your team members as early as possible. As always, we ask you to be thoughtful of any DUHS staff member who frequents your unit or work area. This may include EVS staff, patient transporters, or supply chain team members who will need to be vaccinated this year.

Please note these key dates for this flu vaccination season:

Thursday, September 15: Launch of Flu Vaccination Season

Tuesday, November 1: Deadline for applications for Medical or Religious Exemption should be submitted before this date. This will allow sufficient time for review and for communication of the review decision. Please note: Due to the availability of an egg-free formulation of the flu vaccine, egg allergy is not a reason for a medical exemption.

Tuesday, November 15, at 10 a.m.: Deadline for policy compliance through vaccination or granted medical or religious exemption.

We will be using an updated Duke VaxTrax QR, a digitized flu vaccination consent and health screening platform. You and your vaccinator will complete documentation of vaccination using this digital platform or, if you are vaccinated by your primary care provider or at a local pharmacy, you must submit evidence of vaccination to https://duke.is/vxsfu

If you have questions about the flu vaccine or its availability, please contact StopTheFlu@dm.duke.edu or EOHWflu@dm.duke.edu.

Thank you for your commitment to keeping our patients, each other and our community safe and healthy.

COVID-19 Update

Duke Health has closed its dedicated COVID Nurse Triage line for questions from patients, employees, students and families as of Sept. 1 due to the decrease in calls and a significant increase in community resources. The Duke Health COVID hotline for employees (919-385-0429) remains operational.

Please continue to practice safe COVID-19 protocols in your day-to-day interactions with others. Be particularly vigilant about masking, and avoid eating indoors in group settings. The health of our team members and our patients remains a priority as we continue to monitor the COVID-19 trends throughout our community.

Stay home if you are not feeling well. Employees who begin to experience any COVID-19 symptoms should report symptoms through the Duke SymMon app, which is available in both the Apple and Google app stores.

Donate blood if you’re able to. Click here for Duke-sponsored blood drives through the Red Cross. Patient-facing resources on DukeHealth.org can be found here: https://www.dukehealth.org/covid-19-update/resources. Duke University maintains a resource page as well, which can be accessed here: https://coronavirus.duke.edu/updates/for-staff.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Cardiology Grand Rounds

September 8: The Art and Science of Leadership with David Skorton, President and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). 5 p.m. in Duke North Room 2002 and via WebEx. Dr. Skorton is the Pamela S. Douglas, MD Visiting Scholar. A reception at Duke Gardens will be held immediately following this CGR presentation.

September 13: Guest speaker Bernard Gersh of Mayo Clinic, Rochester with Christopher Granger. 5 p.m. Webex only. (https://duke.is/pemrh)

CME & Other Events

September 9: ‘Advancing Diversity Equity and Inclusion in Academic Medicine: Its Critical Importance and the Role We All Must Play.’ Medicine Grand Rounds with David J. Skorton. 8-9 a.m., Duke North 2002 and via Zoom.

September 25: Triangle Heart Walk. PNC Arena, Raleigh. Check-in and festivities start at 11 am. Walk begins at Noon. Join us!

November 4: 14th Annual NC Research Triangle Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium. 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Save the date! This will be an in-person event at the Durham Convention Center. Registration required. To learn more and register, visit: https://duke.is/jag2b

Have news to share?

Duke Heart in the News:

August 26 — Duke School of Medicine

Becker’s ASC Review

20 most diverse medical schools in the US: Report

https://duke.is/cvxge

August 27 — Michael Felker

Medpage Today

ADVOR Backs Add-On Acetazolamide for Cutting Congestion in Decompensated HF

https://duke.is/mcgpj

August 28 — Renato Lopes

MDEdge.com

Rivaroxaban outmatched by VKAs for AFib in rheumatic heart disease

https://duke.is/2a4kr

August 28 — John Alexander and Sunil Rao

tctMD

Factor XIa Inhibitors Show Potential for Safer Anticoagulation After MI, Stroke

https://duke.is/gtt39

August 29 — Manesh Patel

USNews.com

Biggest Study Yet Finds No Link Between Statins, Muscle Aches

https://duke.is/6gxhc

August 29 — Manesh Patel

tctMD

Only Very Small Risk of Muscle Symptoms With Statins: CTT Collaboration

https://duke.is/p5ysg

August 29 — Manesh Patel

HealthDay News

Biggest Study Yet Finds No Link Between Statins, Muscle Aches

https://duke.is/4qh28

August 29 — John Alexander

Medical Express

New oral anticoagulant shows promise in post-myocardial infarction patients

https://duke.is/564cz

August 30 — Manesh Patel

Medpage Today

P2Y12 Inhibitors May Be the Better Option for Secondary Prevention in CAD

https://duke.is/vnh6v

August 31 — Richard Shannon

Becker’s Hospital Review

11 clinical quality leaders on fall priorities

https://duke.is/z24j5

Duke Heart Pulse – Week ending August 28th 2022

August 28, 2022 / Leave a comment

Chief’s message: ESC Cardiology Meeting

This week the European Society of Cardiology meeting was held in Barcelona with several presentations from Duke Faculty. There were several presentations on late breaking trials and science including the presentation of the PACIFIC AMI study by John Alexander. Renato Lopes was the discussant of the INVICTUS study showing warfarin was superior in rhematic heart disease patients with atrial fibrillation. There were also several investigator and study meetings by Duke Heart Faculty and fellows. Below you will find a photo of Kelly Arps presenting some data on bleeding risk in patients with Atrial Fibrillation on DOACs. Additionally, Joey Harrington also had a presentation around the underdosing of these therapies, and Vishal Rao also had a poster presentation.

Also a photo of several of the faculty and fellows out with some past Duke residents and fellows who were at the meeting.

Highlights of the week:

Kudos to Flores Rosario, Decker and Gohman

We received a note this week from Anna Lisa Chamis regarding some outstanding care members of our team provided recently to a patient:

From Jeff Federspiel in Maternal-Fetal Medicine:

“I am so grateful to everyone who worked to coordinate keeping our patient safe. There are too many people to thank everyone individually, but I wanted to give a special thanks to the bedside team who stayed with our patient through delivery, monitoring and managing hemodynamics in real time and supporting her labor during what is always a difficult experience:

Kelsey Decker and Natalie Gohman from the Duke Heart CTICU team
Courtney Schultz from DBC
Karen Flores Rosario from Duke Heart’s Advanced Heart Failure/Cardiology team

Richa Agarwal added the following comment: “Karen was involved in this emotionally challenging, complicated case. She was present bedside to help — really remarkable effort.”

We are proud of each of you — thank you for the teamwork and compassionate care you’re providing!

Kudos to Elliot

First-year cardiology fellow David Elliott was commended this week in a note to Anna Lisa Chamis. She shared the following message she received from Chris Holley:

“I just want to pass on this kudos about David Elliott: he is the first fellow I have ever seen do a personal review of a peripheral blood smear to check for schistocytes in working up hemolysis.”

Way to go the extra mile for your patient, David!

Shout-out to Shannon

Rick Shannon, MD, chief quality officer for DUHS, cardiologist and area chair of the 2022 Triangle Heart Walk, along with leaders from the Triangle American Heart Association affiliate, hosted an informative health-related Town Hall for employees with Lenovo. Shannon presented the latest information on key health measures and tips for preventing and managing cardiovascular disease. Lenovo employees were able to ask questions during a Q&A session. The virtual event was held on Thursday, Aug. 25. Lenovo is hosting a team at the upcoming Heart Walk — we’re looking forward to seeing them there.

Great job sharing important health tips to our community, Rick!

Be Aware: Extortion Scam Targeting DEA Registrants

An extortion scam continues to target healthcare providers across the US. Please note this reminder:

The U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is aware that registrants are receiving telephone calls and emails by criminals identifying themselves as DEA employees or other law enforcement personnel. In an attempt to create the illusion that these criminals are DEA employees, they have masked their telephone number on caller id with a phone number for a legitimate DEA office. For example, these criminals have used the phone numbers for DEA’s Office of Congressional and Public Affairs and DEA’s 800 number which is used to provide direct support to DEA registrants.

Impersonating a federal agent is a violation of federal law. Registrants should be aware that no DEA agent will ever contact members of the public by telephone to demand money or any other form of payment or threaten to suspend a registrant’s DEA registration.

If you are contacted by a person purporting to work for DEA and seeking money or threatening to suspend your DEA registration, submit the information through “Extortion Scam Online Reporting” posted on the DEA Diversion Control Division’s website. For more information, please visit https://www.dea.gov/scam-alert.

Contact PDC Legal with further questions.

Coming Up: Influenza Vaccine Campaign

Team members will have the opportunity to get vaccinated through any of the following means:

Peer vaccination in clinical work areas will be available as in years past.
West Campus of Duke University in Blue Devil Tower providing healthcare and university worker vaccinations by appointment on various dates throughout October.
Entity-based vaccine clinics will be established; schedules will be posted and shared.
Staff member’s primary care physician or at a local pharmacy.

Peer-to-Peer Vaccination

Please complete the following flu vaccination supply survey by close of business on Wednesday, August 31^stif your work area will be participating in the peer vaccination program. https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cGCkAI3W8o8c8sK

Please note these key dates for this flu vaccination season:

Thursday, September 15: Launch of Flu Vaccination Season

Tuesday, November 15, at 10 a.m.: Deadline for policy compliance through vaccination or granted medical or religious exemption.

If you have questions about the flu vaccine or its availability, please contact StopTheFlu@dm.duke.edu or EOHWflu@dm.duke.edu.

Thank you for your commitment to keeping our patients, each other and our community safe and healthy.

Heart Walk: Sunday, Sept. 25

We are getting excited for the upcoming Triangle Heart Walk scheduled for Sunday, September 25 at PNC Arena. The annual Walk is a great opportunity to come together to celebrate one another, to represent Duke Health, and to reinvigorate the commitment we have for living a heart-healthy lifestyle. Incredibly, this event is only one month away!

We are in the final stretch and could use more help from across DUHS. Won’t you consider joining us? Let’s make sure we have plenty of Duke Blue visible at PNC Arena and that we outshine our friends from Carolina and Wake Med on September 25!

Registering is quick and easy.

Visit TriangleHeartWalk.org
Select the “Create new team” or the “Join a Team” button. Then complete the registration page.
Personalize your page with a photo and send emails inviting others (colleagues, friends and family) to join the team and donate.

Contact Sangeetha Menon at sangeetha.menon@heart.org for help getting started or with any questions you might have about the Heart Walk.

Did you know?

As a part of the AHA’s Strategically Focused Research Network (SFRN), Duke principal investigator Svati Shah, MD received funding from the AHA from 2017-2021 to study microbiota related to molecular pathways in pediatric obesity. A subsequent publication highlighted novel metabolic pathways associated with heterogeneity in response to weight loss interventions, and related biomarkers which could be used in future studies of personalized approaches to weight loss interventions.

Our work to support the AHA Heart Walk comes back to us via grant funding for site PI’s.

Thank you to everyone who has already signed up to participate. If you can’t join us in person, please consider a contribution of any amount to one (or more!) of the nine teams representing Duke Heart.

Help us meet our overall DUHS fundraising goals! Duke Heart’s teams can be found here: https://duke.is/6jpdp

Photos of the Week
As noted – some of our faculty were in Barcelona this weekend for ESC Congress 2022. We’ve seen a number of posts on Twitter – (don’t forget to tag @DukeHeartCenter!) – we enjoyed this shot of Rob Mentz with Mike Felker, “looking like a celebrity that hates selfies with his fans.” Spot on!

COVID-19 Update

Donate blood if you’re able to. Click here for Duke-sponsored blood drives through the Red Cross.

All the latest Clinical Operations updates related to COVID can be found at https://covid-19.dukehealth.org. Patient-facing resources on DukeHealth.org can be found here: https://www.dukehealth.org/covid-19-update/resources. Duke University maintains a resource page as well, which can be accessed here: https://coronavirus.duke.edu/updates/for-staff.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Cardiology Grand Rounds

September 8: The Art and Science of Leadership with David Skorton, MD, President and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). 5 p.m. in Duke North Room 2002 and via WebEx.

CME & Other Events

September 12: Prostate Cancer & CVD Symposium. This is the third webinar of a four-part series. Collaboration between the International Cardio-Oncology Society & Duke Heart. Noon, Eastern. To learn more, please visit: https://duke.is/mbpte

September 25: Triangle Heart Walk. PNC Arena, Raleigh. Check-in and festivities start at 11 am. Walk begins at Noon. Join us!

Have news to share?

Duke Heart in the News:

August 19 — John Alexander and Manesh Patel

Geriatricarea

Bayer organiza un encuentro para mejorar el abordaje de los pacientes cardiovasculares complejos

https://duke.is/nwmkv

August 22 — Joe Turek and Louise Markert

RadioLab (NPR/PRI)

My Thymus, Myself

https://duke.is/547zd

August 23 — Jonathan Piccini

Medscape

Early AF Rhythm-Control Advantage Climbs With Comorbidity Burden: EAST-AFNET4

https://duke.is/b5735

August 24 — Michel Khouri and Stephen Greene

Practical Cardiology

In Patients with Cancer and Diabetes, SGLT2 Inhibitors Could Provide Cardioprotection Against Anthracyclines

https://duke.is/96ygs

Duke Heart Pulse – Week Ending August 21st 2022

August 21, 2022 / 1 Comment on Duke Heart Pulse – Week Ending August 21st 2022

Highlights of the week:

Celebrating Magnus Ohman

It is hard to believe, but Magnus Ohman’s last official day at Duke was August 5. Pulse readers know that we ran an extensive piece about him on Sunday, June 12 and that an in-person gathering was held on July 14^th at the Washington Duke Inn.

Ohman has retired from clinical medicine and will now serve as vice-president of Global Development of Cardiometabolic Therapeutics for Amgen. We reached out to a number of our team members (current and former) for some reflections on Magnus and his time with us.

Here is what they shared:

From Pam Douglas:

“When I first came to Duke, Magnus had left to try his hand at being chief of cardiology at UNC. However his loyalty to Duke and his colleagues made him an easy ‘boomerang’ recruit. He took over our outpatient clinics—a difficult and often thankless job—but pulled off a major overhaul streamlining schedules, referrals and other aspects to make it much more patient and provider friendly.

Magnus’s own outpatient practice was remarkable. He thrived on clinical complexity and even set up a center for ‘end stage’ CAD, while also counting many luminaries and donors among his patients.

Never one to attract attention to himself, he quietly ran international trials and site based research, serving as a sought after mentor for many at DCRI and in the cath lab. I have always highly valued his wise counsel, perspective and insights, and will greatly miss his good cheer, intelligence, and can-do attitude! I’m sure that Amgen doesn’t yet know how amazing a gem they have recruited, but they will soon find out.”

From Kristin Newby:

“I first met Magnus when I was an intern on cardiology, during his first year of cardiology fellowship, and still remember many of the things he taught me! Years later, as I moved from the basic lab to clinical research as I came on faculty, Magnus was among several clinical research faculty who were instrumental in supporting my transition and providing enthusiastic mentorship and guidance throughout my career. We connected over biomarkers, especially through his seminal work on troponins as a prognostic marker, and I had the thrill of conducting with him one of the earliest studies of a multi-marker assessment tool for patients with chest pain (CHECKMATE) that was accepted for publication in Circulation as is, without any revisions! Through the years, I have watched him mentor numerous other fellows and early career faculty with the same enthusiasm and passion, and am especially proud of the role he has played in mentoring and sponsoring women fellows and early career faculty. These aspects, and his clinical presence, will certainly be missed at Duke, but I look forward to continuing our friendship and seeing him flourish in the next phase of his career. And, we still have a lot of golf to play—including bringing the William Harvey Trophy back to the US in 2024, through which Magnus has also been and a terrific friend and valued sponsor and mentor!”

From Jim Daubert:

“Magnus has been a frequent and treasured colleague of mine since returning to Duke in 2009. It was great reconnecting with him in clinical care after forging close bonds with him during our Fellowship some years ago! Over the last 13 years I have very much valued consulting on his uniquely challenging patients and soliciting his insights on especially gnarly coronary and other cases. I will truly miss interacting with him in the clinical realm. His wisdom, judgement and insight cannot be replaced. Fortunately, Amy and I will look to continuing our highly valued friendships with Magnus and Elspeth, not to mention going to Hurricanes games together!”

From Jennifer Rymer:

“It has been a true opportunity to get to work with Magnus from start to near finish on a large multi-site registry over the past two years. Magnus is extremely talented in collaborating with and building relationships with industry partners and external collaborators. He taught me so much about how to develop relationships with collaborators and run a registry, even when we were faced with challenges during COVID. His network runs deep, and always amazed me how he was able to stay in touch with colleagues and collaborators from projects years prior. I have valued his mentorship and appreciate that I had the privilege to work with someone who has done so much in CV research and for Duke. He has been an advocate for me from the beginning, and I know will continue to be a mentor even while at Amgen.”

From Mike Sketch:

“Magnus and I began our cardiology fellowship at Duke the same year, and it has truly been an honor to be his friend and colleague over the past 35 years. He has truly excelled in every aspect of his career and is so committed to our academic mission. He is so supportive of young faculty and wants to see others prosper and grow. He is always thinking outside the box and asking novel questions. Through his example, he has taught so many faculty and fellows how to think creatively. He is very highly respected both inside and outside of Duke. He has developed so many amazing relationships with external partners. He loves patient care, and his patients adore him. Finally, he beams with pride whenever he talks about his family, Elspeth and his three kids.

Magnus, you will be so missed!”

From Tracy Wang:

“Magnus’ career has changed so much for so many of us in medicine. One characteristic of his career I’ve always admired is that he’s not afraid to tackle the tough questions when they need to be answered. He just won’t take “no” for an answer, and many a time, has called up company CEOs to convince them to do the right thing scientifically. Another aspect I and many other others have enjoyed is his sincere interest and support of early careers. I don’t think there’s a recently Duke-trained interventional fellow out there who’s not received an invitation to write a paper with Magnus. He is a tireless advocate for his mentees, and a fervid supporter of supporter of women in cardiology. Magnus, we wish you all the best in the next phase of your career. Don’t forget us at Duke!”

From Chris Granger:

“As a fellow starting in 1989, I met Magnus as a bright, savvy, well spoken (and the accent helped as well), and personable fellow from Ireland who had worked with the Oxford University team — at the time, the most successful clinical trial group in the world. Moreover, Magnus was engaging and entertaining and fun. Life was richer when working with Magnus, as a member of a steering committee or on call for the clinical service. I, like many of us, was in awe and wanted to work with him and be with him. In fact, Magnus and I began to share a room at the major cardiology conferences as fellows because we could not afford to have our own rooms, and then kept doing it throughout our careers because we enjoyed it so much as friends as well as a way to keep up with what was going on at the meetings. He grew into one of the most successful and influential researchers and clinicians in the history of Duke cardiology. He has been recognized several times as one the most highly-cited researchers in all of Duke. He has led many important clinical trials. He served on FDA advisory panels. He was an important bridge between U.S. and European cardiology, being one the few people to serve on clinical practice guideline committees (including in leadership positions) on both sides of the Atlantic. Duke has been very fortunate to have Magnus who has been a terrific ambassador for Duke around the world. He is personal friends not only with those of us at Duke and those that he has trained, but also with many of the leaders of cardiology around the world. Like so many trained in the British Isles, Magnus is a world-class clinician and his patients love him. In short, Magnus has been a giant in his years working in the Heart Center. He has been a loyal, dedicated, beloved member of the Duke team. He will always be an important part of the Duke cardiology family.”

From Blue Dean:

“I did not have a chance to meet Magnus in person when I interviewed at Duke. Instead, he and I spoke by phone and I still remember our conversation. He didn’t ask about my experience; he asked about my children, my husband, and what we enjoyed doing as a family. He talked about the local community, Duke as a place to work, and what set the Duke Heart Center apart from peer institutions.

Shortly after my arrival, Chris O’Connor suggested that I work with Magnus as the point person for the Duke Heart Center’s development efforts. Little did I know that Magnus and I would spend the next eight years working together and in partnership with many faculty physicians to raise funds in support of the Duke Heart Center and Department of Medicine. We spent countless hours in the car crisscrossing North Carolina, Florida, California, and wherever else a donor visit might send us. I most often was the driver which caused me to jokingly referring to our arrangement as Driving Miss Daisy. I’m not sure Magnus appreciated being called Miss Daisy, but it was all in good fun!

And, we did have fun. Magnus is an excellent storyteller and a lover of music. He would keep me entertained (and awake) with both. During one of our trips to Florida, I lost my voice – completely lost my voice – and Magnus was quick to jump in and comfortably navigate the gift conversations on my behalf. Donors loved working with Magnus; they appreciated his enthusiasm and passion for Duke, as well as his commitment to excellent patient care.

I was very fortunate to work with Magnus and remain thankful for all he taught me. Fundraising, like so many professions, can be stressful. Magnus was always quick to lighten the mood with a good laugh and an appropriate story. And, on occasion, a really good bottle of wine!

Cheers to Magnus – here’s to a wonderful run and best wishes for great things to come!”

From Penny Hodgson:

“When Rob Califf invited me to take a job in 1992 editing the manuscripts that came out of the GUSTO trial, I had no idea what the job would turn into. One of the first faculty members to come say hello was Magnus Ohman. He was very supportive of the idea of having someone take his draft manuscript and polish it iteratively to the point of publication. And we did this over and over again, to the tune of more than 130 GUSTO manuscripts over the years; Magnus was likely a coauthor of at least a third of them.

As the Communications group grew, adding editors and graphic designers at first, Magnus welcomed them and put them to work. And he was unfailingly grateful and fun, making great suggestions for improving the slides and illustrations that were used to explain the results of our trials in print and in person.

I have two recollections about Magnus and the European Society of Cardiology meetings. One year he received a phone call from his daughter Elsa telling him that a hurricane was about to hit North Carolina and he needed to come home right away! He shared that story widely at that meeting.

The second remembrance is of being in Vienna the day following the end of the meeting and finding that Magnus was also there. We decided to see if we could get tickets to whatever was going on at the Vienna Symphony Hall, and we could. We had amazing seats with lots of legroom, and Magnus fell asleep before the end of the introduction. He woke up for the intermission and went immediately back to sleep afterwards. He agreed that the Russian pianist had been fabulous, although I’m not sure he heard a single note she played.”

From Bob Harrington:

“Hard to believe but I have now known Magnus for 33 years, since the time I arrived at Duke for my own fellowship. Magnus initially was some sort of very special “super fellow” from Ireland. We heard about him but didn’t see him much. I really got to know Magnus when I went to the Databank as a fellow and then for years had an office next to him and Chris Granger. We spent lots of late nights in the Databank then in the DCRI because none of us had a good internet connection at home. With Magnus, there was always loud rock music (yes, he is a Led Zeppelin fan) and great conversations about research and life. He taught me a lot about both! And talked me off more than a few ledges.

Traveling internationally with Magnus was always a memorable experience. First, he traveled in a suit jacket and tie, even on the overnight! Second, he was through immigration lines very quickly because he would use either his EU/Irish passport or his US one, whichever had the shorter line and so he was usually waiting for us. But he always had a car lined up and he always knew the best hotels in any European city. If you need travel advice, check with Magnus (but don’t ask or listen to Chris Granger, Magnus’ frequent roommate on the road).

Magnus is a creative thinker in research and the cath lab. That can get you in trouble, but Magnus always has a way of pulling himself out of those tricky situations. He’s been a terrific friend and colleague over these many years. And, he has a great wine cellar that he is always happy to share. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does in this next part of his professional journey and I’m definitely looking forward to greeting him more regularly on the left coast! Good luck Magnus.”

Magnus has certainly had an impact on so many of us as well as on Duke and the overall field of cardiology. He has touched most of the faculty and fellows during his time. He mentored many of us during both good and bad times. We will miss seeing him on campus, but we wish him all the best and look forward to many more stories and collaborations over the coming years!

Kudos to Cara Hoke

Anna Lisa Chamis shared a terrific note she received this week from Nishant Shah regarding cardiology fellow Cara Hoke:

“Hi Anna Lisa,

I wanted to let you know that Cara completed an elective on PAC this past week and did an outstanding job! We had a busy service all week which she took the lead on. She was calm, collected, thoughtful, and well prepared. Her communication with other team members, consulting providers, patients, and families was very clear and she was always approachable/available for questions. Furthermore, her bedside manner was outstanding! Both patients and families felt very comfortable with her care. Cara would routinely review all the imaging on service herself including echos, cMRIs, nuclear studies, cath films before making her plans for the day. Her interpretations for the imaging studies would be spot even before the formal reads. Her assessments and plans were extremely well thought out and she also kept disposition/outpatient follow up plans always in the back of her mind as she led the service. The APPs on the PAC team also loved working with Cara and enjoyed learning from her on rounds. She really exemplified quality patient care, being an outstanding educator, as well as a superior team leader! Best, Nishant”

Great work, Cara!!!

Shout-out to Duke Raleigh’s Heart Walk Team!

The team at Duke Raleigh Hospital held a Carnival Day that helped to raise $1600 in just three hours for their Heart Walk team. The funds raised will go to the American Heart Association. Way to go!

Note: Our own Sean Pokorney spent some time in the dunking booth that day – we’re not sure how many times he was dunked or how much was raised as a result, but what a team player!

Hot tip: Heart Walk T-Shirts

Speaking of the Heart Walk… tomorrow, we will be announcing to all DUHS employees that if you sign up by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 24 as a walker (or team captain) for the upcoming Triangle Heart Walk you will receive a Duke team t-shirt. This is a hard deadline and you’re among the first to know!

If you can’t join us in person, please consider a contribution of any amount to one (or more!) of the nine teams representing Duke Heart. Help us meet our overall DUHS fundraising goals! Duke Heart’s teams can be found here: https://duke.is/6jpdp

Reminder: The Triangle Heart Walk is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 25 at the PNC Arena.

Photos of the Week

It was a great week to be working in the CICU! Not one but two celebrations were held for cardiology fellow Willard Applefeld‘s birthday. Happy belated birthday!!

Also, a good week to be a member of the PWIM group – they gathered at Ponysaurus in Durham for some networking and camaraderie. Shout out to Jenn Rymer for her work with this amazing team of women!

COVID-19 Update

Donate blood if you’re able to. Click here for Duke-sponsored blood drives through the Red Cross.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Cardiology Grand Rounds

CME & Other Events

September 25: Triangle Heart Walk. PNC Arena, Raleigh. Check-in and festivities start at 11 am. Walk begins at Noon. Join us!

Have news to share?

Duke Heart in the News:

August 15 — Derek Chew

Health Day

Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion Favored for Some A-Fib Patients

https://duke.is/5ufpt

August 17 — Derek Chew and Jonathan Piccini

tctMD

Stroke, Bleeding Risks Key for Assessing Potential LAAO Benefit

https://

Division of Cardiology Publications Indexed in PubMed August 11-18, 2022

Allen LaPointe NM, Ali-Ahmed F, Dalgaard F, Kosinski AS, Sanders Schmidler G, Al-Khatib SM. Cardiac resynchronization therapy outcomes with left ventricular lead concordant with latest mechanical activation: A meta-analysis. Pacing Clin Electrophysiol 2022 Aug;45(8):930-939. PM: 35687711.

Altin SE, Gitto M, Secemsky EA, Rao SV, Hess CN. Sex-Based Differences in Periprocedural Complications Following Lower Extremity Peripheral Vascular Intervention. Circ Cardiovasc Interv 2022 Aug;15(8):e011768. PM: 35938403.

Attar R, Wu A, Wojdyla D, Jensen SE, Andell P, Mahaffey KW, Roe MT, James SK, Wallentin L, Vemulapalli S, Alexander JH, Lopes RD, Ohman EM, Hernandez AF, Patel MR, Jones WS. Outcomes After Acute Coronary Syndrome in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus and Peripheral Artery Disease (from the TRACER, TRILOGY-ACS, APPRAISE-2, and PLATO Clinical Trials). Am J Cardiol 2022 Sep 1;178:11-17. PM: 35835600.

Carlisle MA, Piccini JP, Fudim M. The interplay between autonomic tone and atrial arrhythmias. Clin Auton Res 2022 Aug;32(4):223-225. PM:35882685.

Chaitman BR, Cyr DD, Alexander KP, Pracoń R, Bainey KR, Mathew A, Acharya A, Kunichoff DF, Fleg JL, Lopes RD, Sidhu MS, Anthopolos R, Rockhold FW, Stone GW, Maron DJ, Hochman JS, Bangalore S. Cardiovascular and Renal Implications of Myocardial Infarction in the ISCHEMIA-CKD Trial. Circ Cardiovasc Interv 2022 Aug;15(8):e012103. PM: 35973009.

Chew DS, Li Y, Cowper PA, Anstrom KJ, Piccini JP, Poole JE, Daniels MR, Monahan KH, Davidson-Ray L, Bahnson TD, Al-Khalidi HR, Lee KL, Packer DL, Mark DB. Cost-Effectiveness of Catheter Ablation Versus Antiarrhythmic Drug Therapy in Atrial Fibrillation: The CABANA Randomized Clinical Trial. Circulation 2022 Aug 16;146(7):535-547. PM: 35726631.

Chunawala ZS, Qamar A, Arora S, Pandey A, Fudim M, Vaduganathan M, Bhatt DL, Mentz RJ, Caughey MC. Prevalence and Prognostic Significance of Polyvascular Disease in Patients Hospitalized With Acute Decompensated Heart Failure: The ARIC Study. J Card Fail 2022 Aug;28(8):1267-1277. PM: 35045321.

Denslow S, Wingert JR, Hanchate AD, Rote A, Westreich D, Sexton L, Cheng K, Curtis J, Jones WS, Lanou AJ, Halladay JR. Rural-urban outcome differences associated with COVID- 19 hospitalizations in North Carolina. PLoS One 2022 Aug 17;17(8):e0271755. PM: 35976813.

Dungan JR, Qin X, Gregory SG, Cooper-Dehoff R, Duarte JD, Qin H, Gulati M, Taylor JY, Pepine CJ, Hauser ER, Kraus WE. Sex-dimorphic gene effects on survival outcomes in people with coronary artery disease. Am Heart J Plus 2022 May;17:100152. PM: 35959094.

Fagundes A, Berg DD, Park JG, Baird-Zars VM, Newby LK, Barsness GW, Miller PE, van Diepen S, Katz JN, Phreaner N, Roswell RO, Menon V, Daniels LB, Morrow DA, Bohula EA. Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes Admitted to Contemporary Cardiac Intensive Care Units: Insights From the CCCTN Registry. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes 2022 Aug;15(8):e008652. PM: 35862019.

Fordyce CB, Hill CL, Foldyna B, Douglas PS. Eligibility for Noninvasive Testing Based on the 2021 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Guideline for the Evaluation and Diagnosis of Stable Chest Pain: Implications From the PROMISE Trial. Circulation 2022 Aug 16;146(7):582-584. PM: 35969650

Fudim M, Fail PS, Litwin SE, Shaburishvili T, Goyal P, Hummel SL, Borlaug BA, Mohan RC, Patel RB, Mitter SS, Klein L, Rocha-Singh K, Patel MR, Reddy VY, Burkhoff D, Shah SJ. Endovascular ablation of the right greater splanchnic nerve in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: early results of the REBALANCE-HF trial roll-in cohort. Eur J Heart Fail 2022 Aug;24(8):1410-1414. PM: 35598154.

Goldstein DJ, Puskas JD, Alexander JH, Chang HL, Gammie JS, Marks ME, Iribarne A, Vengrenyuk Y, Raymond S, Taylor BS, Yarden O, Orion E, Dagenais F, Ailawadi G, Chu MWA, DiMaio JM, Narula J, Moquete EG, O’Sullivan K, Williams JB, Crestanello JA, Jessup M, Rose EA, Scavo V, Acker MA, Gillinov M, Mack MJ, Gelijns AC, O’Gara PT, Moskowitz AJ, Bagiella E, Voisine P. External Support for Saphenous Vein Grafts in Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Cardiol 2022 Aug 1;7(8):808-816. PM: 35675092.

Granger BB, Kaltenbach LA, Fonarow GC, Allen LA, Lanfear DE, Albert NM, Al-Khalidi HR, Butler J, Cooper LB, Dewald T, Felker GM, Heidenreich P, Kottam A, Lewis EF, Piña IL, Yancy CW, Granger CB, Hernandez AF, Devore AD. Health System-Level Performance in Prescribing Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy for Patients With Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction: Results From the CONNECT-HF Trial. J Card Fail 2022 Aug;28(8):1355-1361. PM: 35462033.

Greene SJ, Lautsch D, Yang L, Tan XI, Brady JE. Prognostic Interplay Between COVID-19 and Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction. J Card Fail 2022 Aug;28(8):1287-1297. PM: 35597512.

Hernandez AF, Albert NM, Allen LA, Ahmed R, Averina V, Boehmer JP, Cowie MR, Chien CV, Galvao M, Klein L, Kwan B, Lam CSP, Ruble SB, Stolen CM, Stein K. Multiple cArdiac seNsors for mAnaGEment of Heart Failure (MANAGE-HF) – Phase I Evaluation of the Integration and Safety of the HeartLogic Multisensor Algorithm in Patients With Heart Failure. J Card Fail 2022 Aug;28(8):1245-1254. PM: 35460884.

Kelsey MD, Newby LK. Recommendations for use of ezetimibe and/or PCSK9 inhibitors in patients with elevated LDL-C. Ann Intern Med 2022 Aug;175(8):JC86. PM: 35914252.

Lala A, Mentz RJ. Translating Nursing Partnerships in Clinical Care to Scientific Publishing. J Card Fail 2022 Aug;28(8):1243-1244. PM: 35961730.

Mentz RJ, Lautsch D, Pulungan Z, Kim S, Hilkert R, Teigland C, Yang M, Djatche L. Medication Trajectory and Treatment Patterns in Medicare Patients With Heart Failure and Reduced Ejection Fraction. J Card Fail 2022 Aug;28(8):1349-1354. PM: 34930657.

Moulson N, Petek BJ, Churchill TW, Drezner JA, Harmon KG, Kliethermes SA, Mellacheruvu P, Patel MR, Baggish AL. Cardiac Troponin Testing as a Component of Return to Play Cardiac Screening in Young Competitive Athletes Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection. J Am Heart Assoc 2022 Aug 16;11(16):e025369. PM: 35929475.

Stingl C, Dvergsten JA, Eng SWM, Yeung RSM, Fritzler MJ, Mason T, Crowson C, Voora D, Reed AM. Gene Expression Profiles of Treatment Response and Non-Response in Children With Juvenile Dermatomyositis. ACR Open Rheumatol 2022 Aug;4(8):671- 681. PM: 35616642.

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