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Zainab Mahmoud, M.D., M.Sc., an assistant professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will receive the inaugural Jack Sarver Prize in Clinical Science and Jack Sarver Prize in Basic Science, respectively, at the American Heart Association’ Scientific Sessions 2025. The meeting, to be held Nov. 7-10, 2025, in New Orleans, is a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice updates in cardiovascular science. The awards will be presented during dinner events of the Council on Clinical Cardiology and the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences on Saturday, November 8, 2025.

A new paper in JACC: Advances delves into the factors that may affect implementation of a polypill for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF)—assuming one proves safe and effective—and outlines strategies for an eventual rollout. This exercise “just reinforces the idea, in addition to previous data showing therapeutic inertia and reluctance to use other single-pill combination therapies for cardiovascular diseases, that we need to plan in advance. We need to be strategic in how we design the heart failure polypill and how we implement it, and what strategies and what messages we provide with that,” said Justin Chen, MD (WashU Medicine, St. Louis, MO), one of the lead authors.

Megan Hangyal, an ultrasound sonographer who works at the Center for Advanced Medicine in South County, was celebrating with family and friends at Arnold Days when the crowd around her began to panic. As some fellow attendees asked if medical professionals were present, Megan snapped into action.

The team in the Cardiac Diagnostic Lab, located on the Barnes-Jewish campus, have won a 2025 QUEST (Quality, Excellence and Safety Team) award. This BJH award recognizes contributions made to improve organization performance and quality of care through the use of process and outcome measures. The CDL submission, CDL Echo Capacity and Workflow Optimization, also reflected goals of the BJC Heart & Vascular Growth Initiative.

Phillip S. Cuculich, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Cardiovascular Division and his fellow Co-Director of the Center for Noninvasive Cardiac Radioablation, Clifford Robinson, MD presented the keynote address at the Presidential Symposium of the 2025  American Society for Radiation Oncology Conference.

From the earliest understanding of the body’s circulatory system to today’s groundbreaking treatments, the practice of heart and vascular medicine has continuously evolved in the search for new and better ways to protect and preserve the heart’s essential functions. Specialists at the Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Heart & Vascular Center are at the vanguard of this evolution, discovering new treatments and advancing compassionate care.

Doxorubicin has been a mainstay in cancer treatment for more than 50 years. Sometimes called “red devil chemo,” it is potent and effective against many cancer types. But it comes with a major downside — increased risk of severe heart failure, even decades after successful cancer treatment.Now researchers led by WashU Medicine cardiologist Ali Javaheri, MD, PhD, have identified a type of immunotherapy that prevents and treats the heart muscle damage caused by doxorubicin, based on their findings in human heart tissue, cell lines and mouse models of heart failure. The study appears in the journal Circulation.