Author: Elizabeth

Three Washington University researchers developing promising therapeutics for cancer and heart disease have been named the inaugural awardees of an innovative, new program that provides critical funding to help move research toward early-stage clinical trials and commercialization. The awardees — Carl DeSelm, MD, PhD, John F. DiPersio, MD, PhD, and Kory Lavine, MD, PhD — will receive financial support from the university’s recently established Needleman Program for Innovation and Commercialization (NPIC).

Director of the Echocardiography section, Dr. Kan Liu, has received funding for the grant “Implications of Spatiotemporal Deep Learning Neural Networks in Echocardiographic Diagnosis and Prognostication of Takotsubo Syndrome”. Projects funded by this grant will help integrate new imaging processing techniques and models to facilitate ongoing echo imaging automation process, with the potentials to increase […]

“Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world,” said cardiologist Mark Huffman, MD, a professor of medicine and co-director of the Global Health Center at Washington University. “And in the U.S., Missouri also has high rates of death during and soon after pregnancy. Many of these deaths are due to hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, especially high blood pressure that can lead to heart failure, seizures, strokes and death. Tragically, these are often preventable conditions. We know what works to lower blood pressure, and the programs we are developing here and in Nigeria are intended to get those interventions to the people who need them most.”

On November 15, leaders from the Global Health Center at the Institute for Public Health and Department of Medicine, cardiovascular experts from the University of Abuja, Nigeria and project partners and leaders from Parents as Teachers National Center joined WashU alumni, faculty, students, and members of the WashU Alumni and Development team for a special event: “Global to Local Health: Community-Based Approaches to Improving Maternal Cardiovascular Health in St. Louis and Nigeria”.

A broader challenge, said Thomas Maddox, a cardiologist who leads the digital health and innovation program at BJC HealthCare, is ensuring that we don’t unwittingly infect AI with our own prejudices. “Because AI is ultimately a reflection of us and all our biases, how can we help AI and ultimately us to be fairer in the care we provide?” Maddox challenged the group.

Cardiologists and radiation oncologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis pioneered the use of radiation therapy — a strategy typically used against cancer — to treat patients with a life-threatening abnormal heart rhythm called ventricular tachycardia.

In November, Dr. Linda Peterson and sonographers Billy Cathey and Crystal Licari from Barnes visited Harris Stowe College for a STEM event sponsored by Verizon. Middle school students who belong to groups that are underrepresented in medicine had the opportunity to learn about careers in cardiovascular health.

Nathan O. Stitziel, MD, PhD , Professor of Medicine and Director of the Washington University Center for Cardiovascular Genetics, was named the 2023 GPM and EPI Mid-Career Research Award Lecturer at this year’s American Heart Association conference in Pennsylvania.

Drs. Richard Bach and Sharon Cresci of the Washington University Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center of Excellence, along with collaborators, have published “Effect of Mavacamten in Women Compared With Men With Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Insights From EXPLORER-HCM” in the journal Circulation.

This past summer the Washington University School of Medicine Office of Faculty Development solicited nominations to recognize outstanding individuals for their work and contributions in the Department of Medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Dr. Linda Peterson, Professor of Medicine and Radiology and Medical Director of Washington University Cardiac Rehabilitation, has published a new editorial in the journal JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging.

Dr. Alan C Braverman, Professor of Medicine in the Washington University Cardiovascular Division and Director of the Marfan Syndrome and Aortopathy Center, had an editorial published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology this month.

Dr. Abhinav Diwan, Professor of Medicine, Cell Biology and Physiology, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Division Chief of Cardiology at Saint Louis VA Medical Center, has received the inaugural Charlie W. Shaeffer, MD Professorship.

The American Heart Association will present the 2023 Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Research Goes Red® Award to Zainab Mahmoud, M.D., M.Sc., of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This award will be presented during the opening session of the Association’s Scientific Sessions 2023 on Saturday, Nov. 11.

On October 25th, Dr. Thomas Maddox chaired the National Academy of Medicine’s conference on Generative AI & LLMs in Health & Medicine. The conference took place via livestream, and featured guest speakers and experts in various arenas of medical technology.

Dr. Richard Bach published an editorial published in JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) entitled “Traditional Chinese Medicine Meets Evidence-Based Medicine in the Acutely Infarcted Heart”.

Dr. Krasimira Mikhova joined the Department of Medicine in the Cardiovascular Division as an assistant professor in August 2023. She completed her undergraduate studies at Arizona State University where she graduated Summa Cum Laude in Chemical Engineering. She earned her medical degree at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. Dr. Mikhova completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan, prior to relocating to St. Louis for Cardiology and Electrophysiology fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) recently announced the recipients of the 2023 INSPIRE awards, and among the honorees is Cardiovascular Division faculty and Director of Cardio-Obstetrics Dr. Amanda Verma.

The Department of Medicine is proud to announce that 112 of our faculty have been selected for the 2023 Castle Connolly Top Doctors® list.

For Washington University cardiologist Sumanth Prabhu, MD, the stethoscope is not only indispensable as a diagnostic tool but presents powerful symbolism. He sees it as a channel that connects the patient to the clinician, a conduit through which a current of information flows from the former’s body to the latter’s brain.

Third-year fellow Dr. Doug Hall contributed a piece for the American College of Cardiology’s Sports and Exercise Cardiology Clinical Topic Collection, entitled “Pacemakers and Settings in the Athlete”. Drs. Krissy Mikhova, Daniel Cooper, and Mustafa Husaini also collaborated, and the work was chosen by ACC.org Editor-in-Chief Dr. Kim Eagle as an Editor’s Pick and featured on the website’s front page.

The piece uses a quiz to challenge readers to take specifics of a case with a patient presenting with issues with their pacemaker, and determine a likely cause and course of action.

AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands—For patients with acute heart failure (HF) and signs of congestion, prompt use of a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor or a natriuresis-guided approach to diuretic therapy both seem to be viable strategies to enhance removal of excess fluid, according to results from two small trials presented earlier this week at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2023.

Both approaches improved excess fluid removal, but more data are needed to determine the best strategy, Nancy Sweitzer says.

Sándor J. Kovács Jr., PhD, MD, h.c., Professor of Medicine in the Cardiovascular Division, was recently invited to Budapest to a formal inauguration ceremony for the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Kovács was honored for his outstanding contributions in the fields of physics and medical sciences, especially in the areas of cardiovascular physiology and biophysics.

The Internal Medicine Residents of the class of 2023 voted to recognize faculty who had made a positive impact on their training. Two awards were given for Teacher of the Year, Cardiology. The recipients were Dr. Richard Bach and Dr. Adam May.

Sharon Cresci, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Genetics in the Cardiovascular Division and Associate Director of the WashU Barnes-Jewish Hospital Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center, recently received a five-year R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The grant is entitled “Determining Potential Mechanisms of Worse Outcomes in Black HCM Patients”.

“We had hoped that the rates of aspirin use for secondary prevention would be much higher. Particularly I think, overall, globally, there has been an emphasis on improving cardiovascular health, and one of the efforts is to improve use of some of these evidence-based medications,” said Dr. Sang Gune Yoo, an author of the study and a cardiovascular disease fellow in the cardiovascular division at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has awarded Jesus M. Jimenez, MD, PhD of the Cardiovascular Division the Faculty Diversity Scholars Program Award. Other School of Medicine faculty recipients included  Felicia I. Gomez, PhD, and Felipe Almeida de Pinho Ribeiro, MD.

At the Heart Care Institute, located at the Barnes-Jewish West campus, the cardiac rehab program provides care and education to patients after they experience heart surgery or a serious cardiac event. The team of physicians, nurses, exercise physiologists, and dietitians work individually with patients to help them recover and strengthen their heart health.

After conducting a rigorous on-site survey, The Joint Commission has issued a certification to Barnes-Jewish Hospital as a Comprehensive Cardiac Center. Launched in 2017, Comprehensive Cardiac Center Certification is a voluntary program for hospitals seeking an independent evaluation and recognition of their comprehensive cardiac center services. The program was designed for hospitals with robust cardiac care facilities, aiming […]

Congratulations to the recipients of the inaugural AWAM Leaders in Empowerment and Development (LEAD) Award!
This year’s award winners are Amanda K. Verma, MD (Assistant Professor of Medicine) and Abby Spencer, MD (Professor of Medicine).The Department of Medicine greatly appreciates and values Dr. Verma’s and Spencer’s contributions toward advancing women’s career development!

“It’s getting to be time where athletics are starting, young children are outside and all those things,” said Dr. Marc Sintek a Washington University cardiologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, “I think it’s important to recognize that heat-related illnesses are a really big problem this time of year for a lot of young people who are otherwise healthy.”

But Sintek said people don’t realize the dangers of heat.

“When it becomes very cold in St. Louis or there are ice storms or it is below zero, everyone seems to do a pretty good job of staying at home and not going outside. But it seems like when it is 110 degrees outside and the humidity is 90%, it’s just like we will go out and do whatever.”

Do not get tempted by sunshine and blue skies. “People need to recognize that they’re extremes, but they are both potentially hazardous,” Sintek said.

A growing body of research shows that polypills can be an inexpensive, effective way to reduce the risk of heart problems, with studies indicating that they can cut the risk of cardiovascular problems by almost 40%. But even though heart complications like heart disease and heart attacks kill 18 million people each year, only a few companies manufacture polypills, and few people take them.
Drs. Mark Huffman and Anubha Agarwal of Wash U’s Program in Global Cardiovascular Health were instrumental in advocating for the addition of polypills.

A new policy statement aimed at clinicians treating patients with cardiovascular disease has provided a snapshot of value-based payment programs and laid out a vision for what they should look like as the US healthcare system increasingly shifts away from fee-for-service models..

For certain types of situations, getting paid for each discrete encounter, intervention, or procedure makes sense, “but for preventive care and chronic care, we’re really starting to understand that we need to move toward thinking about paying for care quite differently,” Karen Joynt Maddox, MD (Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO), vice chair of the American Heart Association (AHA) writing group and senior author of the paper, told TCTMD.

Dr. Alan Braverman, Alumni Endowed Professor of Cardiovascular Diseases and Director of the Washington University School of Medicine Marfan Syndrome Clinic, has travelled this summer to conferences in Isreal and Spain.

Tuesday July 27th, Cardiovascular Division Chief Sumanth Prabhu, MD accepted the Innovator Award at the North American Meeting of the International Society of Heart Research, held this year in Madison, WI.

Cardiovascular Division Chief Dr. Sumanth Prabhu has announced that Kory Lavine, MD, PhD, will serve as the next Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Research (CCR), effective July 1, 2023. Dr. Lavine is currently Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Director of the CCR. In his new role, he will succeed Dr. Jeanne Nerbonne, who […]

Dr. Anubha Agarwal emigrated from India to the United States with her family when she was about 5 years old. As many immigrant families do, she spent much of her childhood going back and forth, visiting her family in India. During those trips, Agarwal realized the stark differences between the two countries. “Witnessing the inequities between the countries and within each country, I wanted to solve them. Later, I realized that I wanted to do that as a physician,” she said.

Dr. Amanda Verma, a heart failure and transplant specialist and Interim Director of cardio-obstetrics at the Washington University School of Medicine cardiovascular division, was recently appointed by the Heart Failure Society of America to their Women in Heart Failure Committee.

A study published this month in the New England Journal, “Transplantation Outcomes with Donor Hearts after Circulatory Death” looked at outcomes of recipients of heart transplants where the donor had experienced circulatory death compared to those with donors who had experienced brain death.

The accompanying editorial by Professor of Medicine and Director of Clinical Research for the cardiovascular division, Dr. Nancy Sweitzer was also highlighted in news coverage of the trial publication.

Karen E. Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH, FACC, associate professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, was among those testifying before the Committee. She spoke on the role private equity plays in the current market, the importance of increased data collection on ownership, quality and cost, and the continued shift towards value-based care.

Washington University cardiovascular division faculty Drs. Sharon Cresci, Gmerice Hammond, and Karen Joynt Maddox as well as cardiovascular research fellow Dr. Daniel Fox, published “Inequities in Treatments and Outcomes Among Patients Hospitalized With Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in the United States” in the Journal of the American Heart Association May 26th.

She attributes much of her current success to her time as an NIH Fogarty fellow from 2017-2018 while based in India. The Fogarty Global Health Training Programs offers a one-year mentored clinical research training opportunity for doctoral students and post-doctoral candidates from the U.S. and low and middle-income countries (LMICs), sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (Fogarty International Center) in partnership with several NIH Institutes and Offices.

One of the largest health burdens in Nigeria is hypertension. According to the Global Burden of Disease, hypertension combined with other cardiovascular disease, affects more than 70 million people in Nigeria. Co-Director of the Global Health Center, Mark Huffman, MD, MPH, and a research team at Washington University in St. Louis, are collaborating with University of Abuja in Nigeria, Northwestern University in Chicago, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria, and other key stakeholders on two projects on hypertension prevention and treatment in Nigeria.