Translating Duke Health News

Thanks to a successful first year of Translating Duke Health (TDH), twelve new faces have popped up around the School of Medicine’s labs, clinics and meeting rooms.

Project Hope1000, a new Children’s Health & Discovery Initiative (CHDI) research study led by Sallie Permar, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics, molecular genetics and microbiology, and immunology, and associate dean of physician-scientist development for the Duke University School of Medicine, and Geeta Swamy, MD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, vice dean and associate vice provost for scientific integrity for the Duke University School of Medicine, and vice chair for research and faculty development for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, launch

Just a year after its launch in September 2017, the Translating Duke Health Initiative has already funded 14 innovative pilot projects aimed at accelerating knowledge in cardiovascular disease, children’s health, brain metastasis, brain resilience, and immunology.

A new focus on prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is gathering momentum at Duke to accelerate the transition from treatment to prevention, from palliative care to cure. 

Launched in September 2017, the cardiovascular initiative is one of five bench-to-bedside initiatives created to translate scientific expertise into solutions serving patients and supporting population health.

Xunrong Luo, MD, PhD, Margaret Gray Morton Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University, will join the Duke Division of Nephrology on September 1, 2018.

Dr. Luo, a kidney transplant expert, will serve as director of translational research for the Duke Transplant Center.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Luo back to Duke,” said Myles Wolf, MD, MMSc, chief of the Division of Nephrology. “Her recruitment was made possible by the Translating Duke Health initiative that is supporting exciting new research programs across Duke University."

The Children’s Health & Discovery Initiative (CHDI) held a launch event on Thursday, May 31, 2018 at the Chesterfield Building in downtown Durham to highlight research into the prenatal and early life factors that influence lifelong health and well-being.

Lisa VanTress didn’t know why she couldn’t regain her land legs after a 13-hour fishing trip in the summer of 2016. When the dizziness caused her to stumble and fall, she went to the emergency room. She soon learned she had lung cancer that had spread to her brain.

A Grim Prognosis, Hope from a Second Opinion

Doctors near her home in Little River, SC, gave VanTress a grim prognosis. They said the two masses in her brain were inoperable.

Each year nearly 150,000 Americans are diagnosed with metastatic cancer that has spread to the brain. The number is projected to rise. As a result of a larger aging population, combined with improvements in cancer screening and care, up to 30 percent of patients with solid tumor cancers can expect their cancer to return, traveling to other parts of the body, including the brain.

Brain metastasis is often associated with cognitive decline, seizures, cranial neuropathies and poor prognosis.

Hundreds of faculty, staff, students, and trainees gathered Wednesday, Sept. 13, to launch Translating Duke Health. The multi-year, multidisciplinary program will focus on areas where Duke Health can make the most significant contributions to health and healthcare.

As recently as ten years ago, patients with brain metastasis were rarely even offered surgical treatment. “It was essentially viewed as a death sentence,” Fecci says. But as treatments have improved, these patients have options. “Some of my patients from when I first arrived at Duke two and a half years ago are still doing well,” Fecci says. “A decade ago, that type of survival was just a dream.”