DukeMed Alumni News

Michael Freemark, MD'76 is a 2019 recipient of Duke Medical Alumni Association's Distinguished Faculty Award. He is an internationally known pediatric endocrinologist who has made seminal discoveries in fields including obesity and childhood malnutrition, pediatric diabetes, intermediary metabolism, and the control of fetal growth. His basic science work has focused on the regulation of metabolism during pregnancy and its effects on fetal development. In clinical research, he has played a leading role in the field of pediatric nutrition.

With sepsis, time is of the essence. Left untreated, the illness—a runaway immune response to infection—can quickly become life-threatening. Hours, and even minutes, can mean the difference between life and death for this condition, which strikes more than 1.5 million people and kills more than 250,000 Americans each year.

Because sepsis is nonspecific, there is no single definitive sign, symptom, or test that identifies a patient as having it. That’s a huge challenge for providers, who need to assess patients as quickly as possible.

William Stead, AB’70, MD’74, HS’73-’77 is a 2019 recipient of Duke Medical Alumni Association's Distinguished Alumnus Award. He is a pioneer in the application of communication and information technology to improve the practice of medicine. He is considered a founder of the field of biomedical informatics and a contemporary thought leader.

Remembering a Member of the Greatest Generation

Robert Malone Rosemond (1924-2018), Class of 1953

Every summer Robert (Crusty) Malone Rosemond, AB’49, MD’53, HS’53, P’82, P’86, P’86 would take his friends to an isolated fishing camp in the wilderness of Northern Ontario, Canada. Among them were Ralph Snyderman, MD, former chancellor for health affairs, and Bucky Waters, former Duke men’s basketball coach and vice chancellor for alumni affairs and development at Duke Medical Center. 

The first time Shree Bose saw a live beating human heart, it took her breath away.

She was on a surgery rotation, one of the clinical rotations that Duke medical students complete during their second year. Just a short while earlier, the patient had spoken with the medical team, expressing anxieties about the surgery. Now, with a few strokes of the surgeon’s scalpel, Bose could see the patient’s heart. It was a little mind-boggling.

In the 1950s, Kimberly Johnson’s maternal grandmother was diagnosed with metastatic cervical cancer and ultimately lost her life to the disease. Since then, her family has always wondered whether the situation might have had a different outcome if her grandmother had had access to today’s health care.

“We talk about how things are different now, and if she’d lived today she might have lived longer and better, especially if she had good insurance and a good income,” says Johnson, MD, MHS, associate professor of medicine.

Jeb Hallett has enjoyed a long and distinguished career at top medical centers around the country, where he has performed leading-edge vascular surgery, advanced research, built world-class vascular programs, and helped shape medical education for young physicians following in his footsteps.

James Mold is a revered family physician, geriatrician, researcher, and leader who has helped to reshape our thinking about health and health care.

After spending 6 months in Ghana, West Africa, Jim returned to North Carolina to practice in Hillsborough and teach Duke medical students and residents.  After 6 years in private practice, he was recruited to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) where he spent most of three decades.

Last November, 240 Duke University School of Medicine alumni, along with more than 260 family members, arrived in Durham for the annual Medical Alumni Weekend.  Attendees traveled from as far away as Costa Rica to reconnect with friends, marvel at the changes unfolding on Duke’s campus and in Durham, and dive headlong into an event-filled weekend celebrating their connection to the school and to each other. And, as part of their celebration, they gave. The reunion classes demonstrated tremendous generosity, giving more than $4 million to support Duke Medicine.