DukeMed Alumni News, Fall 2024
Alumni Making a Difference: William Stead, AB’70, MD’74, HS’73-’77
William Stead, AB’70, MD’74, HS’73-’77, is the McKesson Foundation Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Medicine at Vanderbilt University and is one of the founders of the field of biomedical informatics. In the 1970s, first as a medical student and then while a nephrology fellow and member of the faculty at Duke, Stead worked with Ed Hammond, BSEE’57, PhD’67, director of the Duke Center for Health Informatics, and others to build The Medical Record, one of the first practical electronic medical record systems.
‘Heart-in-a-Box’ Device Revolutionizes Organ Transport
Recently developed technologies that maintain donor organs in a functioning state, perfusing them with warm nutrient- and oxygen-rich blood, have dramatically expanded the length of time organs can be kept viable and thus the distance they can be transported. These improvements make more transplants possible — a critical advance in a field where more than 100,000 people are on transplant waiting lists in the U.S.
Duke’s Organ Transplant Program: Out With the Old, In With the New
By any reckoning, Duke is one of the top organ transplant centers in the world, a leader in patient care and outcomes, innovative research, and training. Duke ranks among the top five transplant centers by volume, with some of the shortest average wait times and best survival rates in the U.S. Duke researchers are pushing the frontiers of the possible, not only in the operating room but also in tackling issues of equity and social factors that play an outsized role in transplant access and outcomes.
Alumni Making a Difference: David Axelrod, MD’96, MBA’96
David Axelrod, professor of surgery and surgical director of kidney/pancreas and living donor transplant at the University of Iowa, explores the intersection of economics and medicine. Solid organ transplantation, he says, poses a unique set of complex challenges not only medically but also in terms of cost of care, organ allocation, and access to services.
Alumni Making a Difference: Roslyn “Roz” Bernstein Mannon, MD’85, HS’85-’90
Rosalyn “Roz” Bernstein Mannon, MD’85, HS’85-’90, professor of medicine, pathology, and microbiology and vice-chair for research in the Department of Medicine at the University of Nebraska, says more research is needed to understand how sex and gender affect transplant immunology, access, and outcomes. As past chair of Women in Transplantation, she has helped programs to fund such research internationally and to advocate for women in transplant around the world.
2023 William G. Anlyan Lifetime Achievement Award Robert J. Lefkowitz, MD
Robert J. Lefkowitz, MD is the Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Medicine and a professor of biochemistry, pathology, and chemistry at Duke University School of Medicine. He is also a basic research cardiologist at the Duke Heart Center and a member of the Duke Cancer Institute. He has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 1976 and has spent most of his 50-year research career at Duke.
2023 Distinguished Alumna Award Mary Louise Markert, PhD’81, MD’82, HS’82-’84, ’84-’87
Mary Louise Markert, PhD’81, MD'82, HS’82-’84, ’84-’87, is professor emeritus of pediatrics in the Division of Allergy and Immunology and professor emeritus of immunology at Duke University School of Medicine.
2023 Distinguished Alumnus Award Kurt D. Newman, MD’78
In 2022, Kurt D. Newman, MD’78 retired as president and chief executive officer of Children’s National Hospital, after a nearly 40 year career there. During his 11 years as CEO, the hospital soared from No. 18 to No. 5 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Children’s Hospital annual rankings, with neonatology maintaining the No. 1 spot for six consecutive years.
2023 Emerging Leader Award Kanecia Zimmerman, MD’07, HS’07-’11, 12-’15, PhD, MPH
Kanecia Zimmerman, MD’07, HS’07-’11, 12-’15, PhD, MPH, is an associate professor of pediatrics in the Division of Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine.
2023 Emerging Leader Award Kevin O. Saunders, PhD’10
Kevin O. Saunders, PhD’10, is an associate professor in surgery, molecular genetics and microbiology, and in immunology. He is the faculty chairperson for the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee and associate director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI).
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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