DukeMed Alumni News

DMAN 2024 Spring

DukeMed Alumni News, Spring 2024

Big Data: Duke positions itself to lead as health care enters a new era

Welcome to the Revolution.

First came steam power, then electric power, and then the information age. Now, according to the World Economic Forum, we’re entering the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as the sciences converge around digitized information and data in ways that disrupt nearly every field in every country.

2019 Distinguished Faculty Award - Michael Freemark, MD’76

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.

Buying Time to Save Sepsis Patients

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.

2019 Distinguished Alumnus Award - William Stead, AB’70, MD’74, HS’73-’77

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 Crusty Rosemond, AB'49, MD'53, HS'53

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. 

Rising Star

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.

Reaching for Equity

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.

2018 Distinguished Alumnus Awardee - John (Jeb) Hallett, MD'73

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.

2018 Distinguished Alumnus Award - James W. Mold, MD'74, MPH

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.

About DukeMed Alumni News

DukeMed Alumni News is published twice a year. If you have a story idea, please write to us at the address below or send an e-mail to dukemed@dm.duke.edu. We are interested in remembrances of favorite faculty or stories about your time at the School of Medicine, as well as alumni who have interesting hobbies, alternative careers, global and community health experiences, and anything you think would be of interest to other Duke medical alumni. Letters to the editor are also welcome.

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