Division News

Will Yancy, MD, MHS, associate professor of medicine (General Internal Medicine), will be the new program director of the Duke Diet and Fitness Center beginning July 1.

Dr. Yancy is an expert voice on diet and weight loss, particularly the low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet; the low-glycemic load diet; and the low-fat, reduced calorie diet. He has also conducted extensive research on:

This May, Paul Lantos, MD, gave two presentations on geospatial tools and analysis--one nearly 7,000 miles apart from the other. On May 19, Lantos gave a lecture on geospatial methodology and analysis for the One Health Training Program at the Duke Global Health Institute.

New research from a team including lead author William Yancy, MD (left), as well as Eugene Oddone MD (center), and Corrine Voils, PhD (right), provides new insights into the effects of participant choice in diet on weight loss. The study, published in the latest issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, compared weight loss of participants who were either offered a choice in their diets, to patients who were randomly assigned to a diet plan.

John W. Williams, MD, MHSc, is the subject of this week’s faculty spotlight. In this interview, Williams talks about directing the Durham VA Evidence Synthesis Center, implementing mental health care into patient-centered medical homes, the 1989 SGIM Conference in New Orleans and hiking Mount Kilimanjaro.

How long have you been at Duke? How long have you been at the division of General Internal Medicine?
I came to Duke as a fellow in 1988, left at the end of 1991 for a faculty position in San Antonio, and returned to the division in July of 2001.

Nicaragua, a country of more than six million people, has just five palliative care specialists to its name. Megan Jordan, MD, hopes to change that. In the two years she has been at the division of General Internal Medicine, Jordan has been visiting the country every six months to broaden education, help train health care providers, and even explain the concept of palliative care.

Daniella Zipkin, MD, has accepted the position of Associate Program Director for Ambulatory Care in the Duke Internal Medicine Residency Program. Zipkin will begin working in this position, currently occupied by Alex Cho, MD, MBA, on July 1.

“I can’t say enough good things about Dr. Zipkin in this role,” said Cho.

George Jackson, MD, MHA (left), and John W. Williams, Jr., MD, MHSc (right), wrote an invited commentary on the benefits of patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) for the latest issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.

In addition to working at Duke Medicine’s Sutton Station Internal Medicine Clinic, Ronald Halbrooks, MD, consulting associate in the Department of Medicine, has practiced medicine on three continents.

Rowena Dolor, MD, is the co-author of a meta-analysis examining the effects of therapies for intermittent claudication. Published in a recent issue of Clinical Cardiology, the study examined the evidence for the benefits of supervised exercise, revascularization, and medical therapy for the condition, which causes cramping, pain, and fatigue in the legs at irregular intervals.

This year will mark the 30th year since Eugene Oddone, MD, MHS began his residency at Duke. In this week’s faculty spotlight, he talks about how internal medicine has changed over the past three decades, overseeing more than 100 research projects at the COIN at the Durham VAMC, and his loves of Habitat for Humanity, mysteries, and downhill skiing.